Grace Made Visible (Part 4) - Stewardship

hi Matt Chandler here pastor of the village Church just want to thank you for streaming this sermon on your device I wanted to just before we get going here just lay before you a deep conviction we have that this video sermon that we've prayed really stirs up your affections for Jesus and shapes you and mold you into the image of the son would just be supplemental to your relationship with the Lord and in no way would replace the church you should be plugged into or the pastor that God has put over your life to Shepherd and care for your soul and so please enjoy the next hour or so of this message we have prayed that God would use it in a profound way in your life blessings if you have your Bibles why don't you grab them we'll be in Genesis chapter 1 if you don't have a Bible with you don't own one there should be a hardback black one somewhere around you if you don't own one just take that our gift to you but let's go to Genesis chapter 1 this is we are moving along in our summer series that we just entitled grace made visible and so just to kind of give you a flyover of where we've been the first thing we did is we went into the Book of Isaiah and we looked at what happens to people who have experienced profoundly the grace of God not not somebody who can kind of intellectually assent to you I understand grace but people who in their guts in their spirit at their worst have experienced God forgiving lavishing love lavishing mercy on them despite them so it's not men and women who saw themselves as strong and heard that God loved them and thought well of course he does I mean that's like hearing that my mom loves me of course she does that that's not that that's not what we're talking about we're talking about those men those women who by the Holy Spirit of God became aware of their weakness became aware of their brokenness became aware of their need for help and found God despite them to be near to be loving to be gracious to be patient and when that happens something happens in our heart something happens in our guts all right and and what we said happened out of the Book of Isaiah was that grace is made visible we began to live our lives and a type of open-handed generosity where we see that all that we have in all that we are has actually been given to us by God for the glory of God and so we see ourselves not as owners of anything but rather stewards of all things that have been entrusted to us so that grace made visible or grace is made visible most often and most easily and most frequently via the generosity of the people of God and so that was week one now week two we looked at the generosity of God himself so God the Father sins God the Son Jesus and that Jesus the son lays down his life nobody takes Jesus's life he lays it down and then the Holy Spirit comes and brings gifts first in the form of rescuing our intrinsic gifts and straightening out their aim and so if you remember if you were here I have been curious since the day I was born that curiosity was not put into me upon salvation it was already there my curiosity however was researching and studying and pursuing sinful things and then when Jesus saved me straightened out my curiosity so that I became insatiably curious about him and then I've always been very passionate man and that passion was just set in ways that would destroy me they would own my soul that would lead to certain eternal death and he saved me and he straightened that out with laser-like focus so that my passion my curiosity my the the ability to research and find to reason the the way that the Lord wired me to reason where all of that was pointed towards sinful gain the Lord saved me in the Holy Spirit turned those gifts upon the name and renown of Jesus Christ and so that's the first way that the Spirit has been generous not just to me but to all of us and then the second way is the Holy Spirit brings gifts that weren't there from our birth so not only is the generosity of the Holy Spirit seen in the correcting of intrinsic gifts but then on top of that correction he lavishes upon us gifts that weren't their gifts like empathy compassion intercession if you can if you have the gift of innocent intercessory prayer you didn't have that before you were saved riding me that seems like a bit of a no-brainer you weren't a lost guy that prayed for everybody I don't believe in God but bless that brother and will you strengthen him and God if you exist I don't think you do but if you get a chance would you serve this I mean that one there before you were saved right that's a new gift and then last week was I think a 50 minute rant against the prosperity gospel and so I have a special frustration with that and and then what I want to do what I said last week is is that the prosperity gospel is clearly false and and if you don't know what that is I define it like this the prosperity gospel teaches that God wants or wills all believers to be physically healthy materially wealthy and personally happy now not only is the Bible not gonna give you that but your own reality hasn't given you that has it I mean not only is the Bible not going to support that but actually run contrary to that but then your own life's experience can't even support it and so I said a lot of people then will actually ride the pendulum over and they'll move from prosperity gospel which is clearly wrong into a type of poverty theology where somehow being poor is more virtuous than having money and so I tried to just very quickly show you the amount of men and women in the scriptures who were actually very successful at what they did were actually very wealthy people and were still considered righteous and we walked through the reality that the commands of God upon his people to be generous seem to indicate that somebody's working enough to make money and so I said since it's not prosperity gospel and it can't be poverty theology then then how are we to think rightly about our money well that's what we're going to do tonight and so if you're a guest don't get nervous again I don't need anything I'm very content and and this isn't about we're not building a building we got no long-term strategy v'n wrong with that but the intent here as we do very well as a church no debt are able to walk extremely generously with other ministries and and with other organizations I haven't come because we need money but rather because your soul needs to be more free than it is and so how are we to think rightly about our financial wealth our resources so to do that we're going to start in Genesis okay and I'm going to ask for help and my expectation is that you'll give it to me the five was terrible so I'm hoping that you can redeem what in the five o'clock was a nightmare for me just felt all alone up here like I might as well just been in an empty room practicing the sermon so Genesis chapter 1 starting in verse 26 here we go but up until this point God has just been creating he's created all that we know all that we see just in a sweet rhythm of creation and declaring that what he created was good and then from there we pick up 26 then God said let us there's that Trinity again let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have what's the word dominion prow do you see there we go dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth so God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and what subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth and God said behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on all the face of the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit you shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth everything that has the breath of life I have given every green plant for food and it was so and God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day now look over in chapter two we're going to pick it back up in verse seven we're gonna read the similar story but but with just some pieces that I want you to see verse 7 of chapter 2 then the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the became a living creature and the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and there he put the man whom he had formed and out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant in the sight and good for food The Tree of Life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil also look at verse 15 and then we'll stop and chat the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it now what we're reading is is known in by several different names in the in the kind of world of theology it's the cultural mandate it's the creation mandate and here's the reality of the world in which you and I live the Bible tells us God has made everything and that everything's is the Lord everything is the Lord's and that God has decreed and declared that you and I made in His image beat the viceroys or stewards of his creation so that all that you have and all that I have is God's and there is nothing that exists that is not his and he has placed us as stewards over that creation on earth so that everything you have and all that you are has been given to you by God for the glory of God so if I could distill it even farther you own nothing nothing you have is yours you are a steward of it all according to the scriptures a steward will be held to account to how he or she steward it but all of it is his and not yours that's weird for us we don't like that some of us worked hard yeah you worked hard with the mind God gave you in the body he sustained and with the air he lets you breathe and and on and on I could go there's nothing that you have that is not his that's why it's impossible to buy him off you can't give him anything CS Lewis described that as Sixpence None the Richer now CS Lewis likened us trying to buy God off with good deeds in our own money oh he should be really impressed with me giving him this money with a child that asks his dad for money to buy him a gift that the father Sixpence None the Richer so at a birthday a couple of weeks ago my kids bought me presents you know how much they spent I know exactly how much they spent I know exactly how much it cost to get me the gifts they got me you know what because I bought those gifts for myself via my kids so it was really sweet I open press like oh my gosh come here buddy that's so awesome did you like how'd you pick that out well mom took me to the hey room but I bought that I saw it on the side did our budget I saw I mean I knew I was gonna get that before I even opened it I did the same thing with both my fiber live my five-year-old picked that out she can pick that out mom's like we should get this for now okay and and and then I bought it for myself I was after my birthday I was no wealthier in financial monetary wealth than I was before my I was actually I lost money on my birthday now I gained all sorts of things that money can't buy I'm not gonna quote them there but you know where I was going with that alright so I there are all these things that I gained that money can't buy but it's impossible for my kids to buy me things at this point in their lives and for me to be financially wealthier because of it it will always be out of my account that they purchase things for me this is why you cannot buy the Lord off you can't buy him off with your good deeds and you certainly can't buy them off by giving your money to the church every now and then he cannot be bought you will never put him in your debt he's too big too powerful and everything that is is his well I can give him my life I want to take your life when he wants it it still his alright you you know that's not how it works and and so with this in view that God owns everything and everything we have is his how are we to think about money well Jesus is going to teach this in Matthew chapter 6 you don't have to turn I'm going to read it but I definitely want us to to have a conversation about it there are two things here to consider when it comes to our money and then from there we're going to talk about how to be good stew so Matthew six starting in verse nineteen here's what it says do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there your heart will be also so let's just let's start with that block that blocks pretty tough all right I mean first a great great kind of life lesson I don't don't make your treasure be where people can take your treasure from you all right invest in places where you can't be stolen from where things can't be destroyed where things cannot be taken from you don't invest there and best where you can have an eternal reward and and then gosh the the shot across the bow is you want to know your heart is look at you look at your wallet anybody would rather that one not be in there liars now me because what this just said is it doesn't matter what comes out of your mouth let's see your statement like well I really loves the Lord know what you really love is wakeboarding what I really love is the Lord know what you like is fly-fishing in Colorado and wakeboarding and fly-fishing in Colorado are awesome they just make really terrible gods like really terrible so he's saying wherever your treasure is there your heart will be also and then from there let's keep reading there's this weird section in the beginning we're going to read it all the way to the end of the Nall address kind of the weird section the eye is the lamp of the body so if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness if then the light in you is darkness how great is the darkness no one can serve two masters for he will either hate the one or love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other but you cannot serve God and money so in in the first block here he's saying invest eternally not in a place where it can be stolen or ruined and then he ends with you will be unable to serve God and money it's impossible you'll love one and hate the other you'll be devoted to one and despise the other but you will not serve God and money and then in the middle he's got this whole section about our eyes and eyes and lied eyes and darkness and it just seems like an odd text but here's what Jesus is teaching us in view of financial wealth he's seen that how you see saying that how you see reality directly equates to the level of darkness you walk in so I think probably a cleaner way to look at this is I'm going to age myself here but growing up my parents listen to the Carpenters and Karen Carpenter a great folk singer had a disease a mental disorder eating disorder called anorexia nervosa and and what that is is she would look at herself in the mirror and she would see despite the fact that she was starving herself to death and her skin was just hanging on bone she would see herself in the mirror and go I'm fat and she would start and she starved herself to death incredibly wealthy anything she could possibly want at any time and she starved herself to death because the light in her eyes were dark how she saw the world was inconsistent with reality and it got her killed and so what Jesus is teaching here is how you see money matters and if you see money in the wrong light it is destructive it will own you it will drive you it will lead to perverse things so we must strive to see money correctly and he's already helped us with that money first and foremost says treasure should be stored up in heaven that'll be the first one and then the second one is money makes a terrible god to pursue it long for desired have to have half having to have it leads to all kinds of perversion death destruction and so light eyes mean seeing Christ and the ways of God as the treasure to be pursued not rejoicing in poverty not believing that that we get health wealth and all of those things but just simply seeing that the real treasure to be had this side of glory is Christ himself and walking in accordance with this word so then how are we to think about our money and I'm going to get overly practical at some point but but I want to tell you two things I think we need to think about when we think about money and then I'll give some practical ways to do that the first one is that money according to the Word of God money must always be obtained through honest gain so money should always be obtained through honest gain and let me give you some of the Proverbs here proverbs 10:2 says treasures gained by wickedness do not profit but righteousness delivers from death a couple of chapters later or few chapters later proverbs 15 27 whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household but he who hates bribes will live and then in proverbs 22 verse 16 whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth or gives to the rich will only come to poverty and so what the Bible is teaching us about how to pursue wealth is let's work hard I've said it dozens of times I want you to be as successful as you can possibly be speaking of business or whatever you do in your career path I think you should aspire to it I think that is a good thing to have godly ambition and to work for the glory of God but we should not and shall not be people who sell out to get there they don't stab anybody in the back we don't oppress the poor we don't make shady deals we don't piddle around with numbers that's not who we are to be pursue success men and women but pursue it as men and women of God and we don't lose our family along the way because that's our first calling to buy our family family's trinkets and toys at the expense of our presence is the most foolish investment any man will ever make she doesn't need $200 jeans she needs you he doesn't need yet another camp or car needs his dad he needs his mom it's a foolish investment let's not make it men let's not make it bumps we don't get wealthy we don't pursue wealth at the loss of our uprightness and then one of the things we've just been researching lately concerning us entering into some of the neighborhoods around here that kind of walk in the most most difficult poverty in our areas that some of the men and women some of these corporations that own these apartments around here I mean they're basically slum Lords and it jacked up the price of rent on these apartments you got I know a family that we've been just kind of loving okay there's a pipe broken their sewage pumping out right in front of their door and we can't I mean literally gonna have to pull some legal in to get this done I mean the guy knows it's theirs doing nothing about it spite the fact there's kids all over right there's a man getting wealthy off the oppressed and poor that's not how we are to gain wealth we are to run from anything that lacks integrity anything that lacks uprightness and anything that would make us gain at the expense of others so pursue success men and women but don't lose your soul God has been very clear you will not deal kindly with those who oppress the poor those who take advantage of the weak how could we even when while we were weak he came and saved us and then from there in the way place we'll spend most of our time not not only is money not to be obtained dishonestly but honestly but money must be cared for diligently money must be cared for diligently so let me give you two texts here the first ones are strange when proverbs 27 23 through 24 know well the condition of your flocks and give attention to your herds for riches do not last forever and does a crown endure for all generations and then I'll give you one more and I want us to talk about how we care for money diligently 1st Corinthians chapter 4 verse 2 says moreover it is required of stewards that they be found what faithful so stewards are going to be found faithful and then on top of that the Bible says hey count your herds know well your flock know well your hers know well what's going on with your wealth why because it's not your wealth you're a steward so no well the resources that you have why because they're not your resources they have been entrusted to you for you to steward for the glory of God so how do we care diligently for the money that God has given us via His grace let me go two ways and and we'll get really practical the first is whether you make a billion dollars a year or you make a grand a year you should be operating out of a budget all right that's just simple no brain step one this is how you steward faithfully you have a budget and if you're in you're like well we'll make enough money that's never big a big issue well it's always been a big issue because every dollar you have is God's granted to you to steward faithfully for his glory and so again even if you're a billionaire you should have a budget you should know what you have you should know how you're operating within that budget and so if you don't know how to budget then there are all sorts of tools that can help you with this we actually have a group here at the village that what they do is they sit down with people to help you come up with a budget if you haven't been trained don't have a background like it's a rare thing in all the discipleship groups I've run through over the last 12 years most of the men that have come through they're young men they have no clue how money works part of that is the fatherless society we're in and then part of that is that's a trait that fathers haven't really passed on well to their kids and so I've literally had to at times play a cash out game with them we get fake money I'm like okay where's your rent okay well there's your rent now what do you spend on groceries brother have you ever going grocery shopping then you know or some runs like will you you got everything organic got a family of five I'm not spending that how much are you juicing right and then we work through that okay where's electric where okay just no no ability to think this way and so really we have a group here that sits down with men and women and helps them walk so this is how a budget should look now let's talk for just saying if you're in here and you're so jammed up with debt that the idea of a budget it makes you nauseous let's chat about that first of all I'd be the first to say there's a type of debt that happens that that ultimately is just life in a broken world and and so I have come across men and women that we have counseled that had a massive kind of medical explosion thing occurred emergency surgery follow-up all sorts of things that have jammed them up really really bad and have for years to come and then I actually had a good friend at the church that started a business business plan was great everything was moving along and then from up for unseen no way you could watch it coming factors his business went under and he moved back in with his mom at 34 and I mean you that stings that stings and it just literally I mean seasoned businessman we're saying it looks great I think you'll kill it but there are certain things you can't you can't see coming all right anybody have a Sony Walkman remember that yellow one the sport anybody still using that you're not you notice you can't buy anymore unless you're like paying more for it than you should online a yellow Sony Walkman sport why because the iPod showed up and and then it got smaller and then it got smaller and smaller and smaller and you just couldn't I mean you didn't see it coming it happened fast I mean we were flipping that thing over and then we moved to CDs and then CDs were here we're like a decade I mean there are things there are times that debt happens and it's not because you're foolish and and it's not because you're greedy and and it's not because you have a wicked heart it's just the world's broken and stuff happens but there's also a type of debt that is foolish and exposes our hearts for what they are and it must be dealt with so here's the mirror I want to put in front of all of us today what drives us to buy things we can't afford what drives us to do that what drives us to buy houses that are well outside of what we can afford to buy cars that are well outside of what we can afford to buy clothes that are well outside like what drives us what what does that in US I mean there's all sorts of things it could be I mean it is it simply they were hedging our bets you know what I mean by that so I've come across some I don't really know how to categorize the conversations I've had with people who just in case they feel really trapped between two worlds because if this Jesus thing doesn't pan out they really want to kind of enjoy life and enjoy that but if he's true gosh we better be standing over here because we don't want and so they kind of straddle both worlds and they Jam themselves up in debt trying to take advantage of life here because they're not quite sure if life here is what the Bible promises and so what gets exposed in some debt is you're not a believer because there's no such thing as halfway hearts when it comes to the Lord and we might not be where we want to be and he moves us along incrementally but if in your head you're going to want to enjoy life now because this might not be all I hope it's going to be I'm saying that should lead to some introspection what drives you to buy what you cannot afford so much the marital counseling we do here is birthed out of foolish debt playing the part I think what they call it keeping up with the Joneses and in this city that's funny because there literally are some Joneses that are crazy wealthy but right like what why do we why do we feel better about ourselves when we have new stuff I mean we talked about this all I try to talk about this as often as I possibly can why do new clothes new technology new cars new why does it make us feel like we're better people we're not we're not better people and yet the marketing that you and I inhale non-stop is if you have this you're a better person if you have this you're going to be happier of heart if you have this and here's what's crazy it works for an instant doesn't it like just for a second it works like I can legitimately feel cooler in new stuff I I feel for a second cooler when I get a new laptop or a new it's so dumb like I know it's up like I feel better about myself and I'm thinking why do I feel better about I don't know but I do right if there's this kind of drug like effect trinkets and toys has on us and we must pay attention to what is driving us into debt and the purchase of things we simply cannot afford many of us are in houses we should not be in many of us are driving cars we should not be driving we've justified it we've looked at the mirror and made justification odd is a carnival mirror it's not legit we've jammed ourselves up and enslaved ourselves in dozens of ways how do we steward well the resources God has given us we get on a budget it budgeting is not fun can we just get everything on the table I hate budgeting I hate it like I every Friday I sit down and I work through our family budget and I'm always grumpy or afterwards and it's not cuz I'm broke I'm just I don't to use my day off to flip and budget like honey what is this what what is this it target here I don't know if it's groceries or if it's clothes or if these super centers are driving me mad but every dollar is the Lord's so I want to make sure I know what I'm doing with his money because I don't own everything and he's trusted me with much and many of you have been trusted much more than I have so with that said that brings me to the second point the second point being that money must be used in a god-honoring way so how do we walk in good stewardship the the first is that we have a plan we make a budget and then the second way and I'll press on this as money must be spent in god-honoring way now before I read a tax let me just stop us here lest you get nervous like if you're like man I was after this we were gonna go get some Fujita's and just gonna go have some Mexican food some friends and now is that god-honoring I mean can I get a steak and and a good cab with that steak now Chandler what in the world I'm compute aching this for me okay for I'm not taking it from you in fact I would encourage this if you are on a budget I'll add another piece to it in a second but if you are on a budget and you can enjoy in such a way that you understand it's come from the Lord to be enjoyed for the praise of his glorious grace when I say partake so if you're on a budget within that budget you can order that steak get those Fujita's and order that bottle on then hit it get it all right but if you can't then don't but if you can grit grab a steak order two bottles one as long as there's a big group sinners you guys make me sit really two bottles of wine for just you and your spouse else gets discussed me alright so with this said let's let's look at this proverbs chapter 3 starting in verse 9 says this honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of your produce then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine so honor the Lord with your firstfruits spend your money in a way that honors the Lord now what do we do with this your barns will be full and your vats will burst forth with why is that is that because that sounds prosperity doesn't it well well let's let's look over in your Bible to Philippians chapter 4 that's a long way from Genesis 1 but I believe in you Philippians chapter 4 let's start in verse 14 all right here we go well I still your pages I want you to see this don't stop turning just cuz I said we here pages whoa don't do that just get there Philippians 4 starting in force verse 14 force it's about to come off the rails I gotta hold it together a little bit longer starting verse 14 this is the Apostle Paul writing via the power of the Holy Spirit to the church at Philippi the Apostle Paul was a man who hated Jesus persecuted the church and then God saved unless you feel bad about where you are in life Paul was much worse and then ended up writing by the power of the Holy Spirit much of our New Testament so starting in verse 14 yet it was kind of you church at Philippi to share my trouble and you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel or my gospel ministry when I left Macedonia no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again not that I seek the gift but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit now that sentence right there is one of the things that separates out prosperity preachers from gospel preachers I seek not the gift but what the gift buys I'm not in this for money I'm in this for gospel game and when you sow into this ministry you're sowing into gospel gain not into the ministry itself you don't need to tease that out farther so beware of brothers whose ministry is about their ministry but rather their ministry be about the ministry of the King so I'm for where I'm given I'm looking for churches planted I'm looking for unreached people reached I'm looking for those type of opportunities to invest not in a brother's suit wardrobe or not in his jet fuel even though having a suit isn't wrong and flying in a plane is not wrong I'm just saying for me where I'm going to throw my dollars is that the brothers planting churches and planting churches and hard places give to the brothers in tough ground doing difficult things needing holy spirit power and and needing money to make it work but watch where he goes after this 18 I have received full payment and more I am well supplied having received from a Patra deities the gifts you sent a fragrant offering a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in the glory that's in Jesus Christ so coming off of that proverbs tax when the Apostle Paul writes back to the church in Philippi that has given generously to his gospel ministry of planting churches all around Asia he sends back to them my prayer for you is that you would be blessed out of the abundance of riches found in Jesus Christ he says what you're going to get back for your generosity is greater faith a greater understanding of Christ as Lord and that's the prosperity we can count on and that delivers a hundredfold more than more money in our counts than more money in our accounts so practically speaking let me tell you a couple of ways that I've seen people operate that honors the Lord and how they spend while being able to kind of navigate the should I get this should I do this should I go here is a vacation okay is it because that can all feel kind of paralyzing when you start doing on money in fact I was getting nervous about my next I'm afraid some godly full of the Holy Spirit wealthy man that gives a ton away he's gonna feel guilty going back to his BMW oh I don't want you to feel guilty about that or I want you if you're walking as the Lord would have you walked to rejoice in God's goodness so let me walk through a couple of ways I think you can spin and a little grid you can walk through that I personally found helpful so for my family here's what we've done since the beginning what we've done is we have set aside a percentage that we're going to give away so that's what we've done we've got a certain percentage and that percentage is going to go away there's what we give to the church and then there's a percentage that we just we just want to be generous with so that's supporting missionaries supporting church planners that is giving to works overseas so that percentage just doesn't change so as our as what I have made annually increased all we've done is just that percentage has grown we've never tweaked it and and so that percentage is always the percentage of which we're simply going to give away we're not going to take it and use it for this we're not gonna take it and use it for this this year is kind of tight we're gonna take it we just haven't done that that's a set we're gonna take this percentage and we're going to give it away and we did that early because I have a wicked heart but I'm just being straight with you I like nice stuff in a way that's not good for my heart and the son of a truck driver we just didn't have we mean we're macaroni cheese and hamburger folk I mean that's just what we that's kind of what we ate me just never had a ton of nice things never had and so nice things are nice I like them in a bad way I like them and so years ago I came to our elders and said I don't want to take money for outside speak and I wanted to come to the church and I want money for my books I wanted to come to the church and I'm gonna put the weight of judgment on you to decide how you travel or how you treat me and my family and so let let God judge the elders if I'm not taking well care of and I am taking well care of this church is extremely generous to me and my family but when I'm gone in my job is good I'm not here and I'm out preaching some or if I'm leading a tune on if I'm over in Europe encouraging pleasures I go as an extension of you I'm not getting paid for that you pay this Church pays me and all that other stuff funnels into here because I can be bought I don't want to be bought Oh totally myself out and I just can't have it don't laugh you would - you tell me one more yourself out you totally would and I could justify you know the Bible verses I can use to justify don't muzzle the oxen you're that one workman's worth his wages find me some pastors that are preaching six seven times a week in I go speak for some of those brother they got one Sunday morning sirs I just start getting bored like really you just go home now you serious so I mean I can play the game but I don't trust me but I trust the men that God's put in place here just in total glads mission so I just set the 30 I just set the percentage and and we just kind of give it away and then from there I have other friends and here's how they do it my other friends just said a long time ago we're not going over this line and so when they got to that line they just stayed there they just weren't gonna buy into the lie that they needed more needed to get bigger needed to get they needed a bigger house and he did a nicer car they just weren't going to do it and so they just kind of put the line down and said we're gonna live like this and a couple of those brothers I mean they've been on the New York Times bestseller list I mean they've made millions and millions and millions of dollars and live and I mean these great little houses you know he's 1,800 foot square you know 1,800 square feet 2,000 square foot houses and I've just sewn into the kingdom and given into the kingdom so now watch how it works here's how you make the decision on on how to spin do you go on that vacation you do this you get the new car with the seat heaters God knows you need that in Texas right do you do you do the back patio do you build out that right do you get your daughter horse I mean how do how do you make these decisions well here's how you make the decisions here's my budget here's what we've decided to do so we can't be owned by our money we're gonna give away this for Center we're not going across this line alright so I've got the budget I can do it and rejoice in it and understand this is a good gift from the Lord if you can make that because you got that generosity clause in your budget now buy and celebrate the Lord's been good so for us I've got my little percentage we're not we're not balking on that percentage it's set it's it's non-negotiable regardless of what comes in regardless of what we make regardless it's set we don't negotiate how do you want to back that down you know the kids are in school now and there's more than no no it's set and then from there we go and we buy this and see it as a good gift from the Lord and if the answer is yet yes then I've never felt guilty about the purchase we've rejoiced in it now in that grid most of what we have enjoyed has been delayed so I've become a master in reverse engineering so even now mama my wife I call her so boo is saying I'd really like to get this and so I just threw out you know got three or four bids and and sat down and looked at the bit that I was like okay we can do that here and we get here we'll do it but we're not doing it until we get here so there's there's delayed gratification and that's not a bad thing and hear me generosity enables you to participate in massive god-sized beautiful things to sow into things that yield a type of return they would blow your mind now do some research don't just throw money around that's not being a good steward so I've already given you some of mine like I I want to support church planning and church planters just because statistically nothing reaches lost people for Christ like new church plants in places where there aren't any gospel churches and I want to I want to support guys who are doing the hard work in fact a good chunk of our money goes to a good friend of mine that's working to plant churches in the Middle East he's got a great church there he's got a great kind of like school there that trains these pastors and they're hitting all sorts of countries I will not name now and so bright I mean I would just get behind that brother with all that I can and it's awesome to do that stuff I love it and then just to have a little section of the budget where oh man this brother needs some tires he can't afford it I remember when I was making 12 G's a year and I was driving like an Indy 500 car just because I couldn't afford new tires so let's get this brother right just a little being able to be generous and if you're saddled with debt if you're walking in full since you can't do it if you don't have a budget it's harder to do it now here's how we'll end these texts kind of just set a mirror right in front of you and so what we can do like every week is we can look in the mirror of the word of God and we can decide that either this is showing me who I really am or we can begin to justify that that's not really what I look like my hope is that is the mirror of God's Word reads you you would be able to confess and repent and that feeling of guilt don't don't ever hate conviction conviction is a real gift from God because what flows over a soul that understands it's broken is almost always the grace mercy and forgiveness of God which increases our worship and empowers our obedience so don't despise conviction it's a gift let me encourage you to sit down with your husband and wife let me encourage you if you're single to sit down with people can hold you accountable and let's just be honest this week just got not on a budget I'm just living paycheck to pay I'm all jammed up with dead were morons I'm driving a car cannot afford I love that car I can't believe he said that but a house I can't afford and let's be honest let's confess and let's repent so that we might be happy hearted in our generosity as stewards of God on high let's pray father thank you for these men and women I thank you for an opportunity just to be read by your word I know these things press on my heart and so I pray father you would press them on the hearts of these men and women I see so much conflict and loss in this place over playing the part putting on the veneer acting as though we are further along and more successful than we are help us with such foolishness and may we live to please you and steward well what you have graced us if for your glory and our joy help us father it's for your beautiful name Amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 11,994

Rating: 4.7931032 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, Grace, Grace Made Visible, Stewardship

Id: WBDiR7rqGxM

Length: 47min 47sec (2867 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 29 2014