Proverbs 14:30

“Make It All About Money”
John Ortberg

Well, are you awake? Got a little Baptist church going in here, man, instead of all that Presbyterian stuff. It's kind of hard to talk after that. Did you notice how deep Royce's voice gets like that? And I feel like I'm up here, you know, "Okay, thus saith the Lord." Embarrassing!

This is one of those weeks when more than ever we're aware of what a needy world we live in, and then ultimately, the need in our world is not just for human action or programs or policies; it's for Jesus, and as for what happens when we let Jesus live His life through our lives. That is what our world needs. And next month, we're doing this series…it starts February 13th, that weekend…called The Ripple Effect, and it really is just simply about what if all of us who follow Jesus were to surrender and allow Him to live His life through our lives in this needy world? What might happen?

And we want to roll up our sleeves, and be with Him, and be following Him, and be doing what He wants us to do as He empowers us to do it, and all on the same page together. So, be praying about that series. The small group part of it will be a real important part, so if you're not in a small group right now, you can sign up this weekend and make that part of your experience where you're going through there, and we'll all just ask together, "God, what are You doing in Your world, and how can we get in on it? How can we be a part of it?" So, that is all coming up.

Now we're in this series about idols and how they want to wreck our lives and how we can go down a different path. And this week, we're thinking about the money idol. And I was thinking, coming into this message, about that old saying, "Money talks." Somebody wrote this a long time ago that "Money talks, I'll not deny. I heard it once. It said, 'Goodbye.'"

And it got me thinking about "money talks," What would money say to you if it was unredeemed and it was trying to pull you away from God? And then I thought, On the other hand, what would money say if it was redeemed, and it was actually trying to lead us in the direction of God, get us closer to God? And so, I want to do a message this weekend kind of around "money talks." And to help us be really clear that this is money talking, I have a little visual representation just to remind us. You all know that little guy from those goofy commercials?

So, we're going to let money talk today, and I want to start with…What would money say if it was trying to be your idol?...which it does always but especially where we live. How does money try to pull us away from God? First thing I think money would say is, "Compare yourself only with people who have more than you. Don't look at people who have less; look at people who have more."

There is an MIT professor who did a fascinating study of the happiness level of Olympic medalists. After an event is run, obviously the gold medal winner did best, silver did next, and the bronze medalist third. Who do you think was the happiest athlete in that competition? Gold medal. Who do you think was second happiest? The bronze interestingly enough. What they discovered was the guy who won the bronze medal compared himself downward to the person who came in fourth and thought, Man, I almost didn't get a medal at all. I'm so grateful for what I have when I could have had nothing. Guess who the silver medalist compared himself to? The gold medalist. And he was obsessed with, Oh what I could have had! If only I had that then I would be happy. And the silver medalists are actually less happy than the bronze medalists.

And there is something really deep in the human heart here. Money will say to you, "Keep looking at people who have more than you do, and just think how much happier you'd be if you had what they had." This is from the writer of Proverbs. Let's read these words together out loud. "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones."

A closely related statement that unredeemed money will tell you, the second one is, "You don't have a greed problem." Money will say, "You don't have to worry about being greedy because greedy people are way richer than you are. You don't have enough money to be counted as greedy." Interestingly, Jesus was talking one time to a crowd of mostly very poor people, a lot poorer than you and I are. "Then He said to them, 'Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.'"

Now, He never makes this kind of statement, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of murder, or all kinds of adultery" because they're so clear-cut. Nobody gets halfway into a killing and says, "Hey, this might count as a homicide; maybe I shouldn't do it." Murder, adultery, stealing, lying are really clear cut. How do you know when you're being greedy? See, one of the things money will do is it will try to lure us into thinking that as long as there is a Bernie Madoff in the world, he is the one with the greed problem, and I'm okay.

Jesus went on to say…let's read these words out loud, "For your life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions." Strange thing about possessions and just who possesses who: when Nancy and I were married, initially I was in school. We had no money at all, we had nothing but secondhand furniture, and when our kids started coming along, all we had was on old, worn, brown, faded couch. We did not care what happened to that couch. You could sit on it, play on it, eat on it, sleep on it, bounce on it…we didn't care.

When I got home from work every day, I'd put the kids on the couch and actually bounce them up and down on the couch, and just go, "Yiy, yiy, yiy, yiy, yiy!" And they would say it, and it became known as the "yiy-yiy couch." That is what we called it. We saved money over the years, and one day we ended up selling my old Volkswagen Super Beetle, and we went to the store to buy our first nice piece of furniture, a sofa the color of Pepto Bismol. This was back in the 80's. It was called a mauve sofa. It was really pink, but for that kind of money, it's a mauve sofa.

And the guy at the sofa store when he found out we had little children, he said, "Don't buy a mauve sofa. Get like a dirt-colored sofa." But we said, "You know, we know how to handle our kids. We'll take the mauve sofa." We brought it home. Anybody want to guess what the number one rule about the mauve sofa was? Don't sit on the mauve sofa. Don't play around the mauve sofa. Don't touch the mauve sofa. Don't breathe on the mauve sofa. Don't look at the mauve sofa. Don't think about the mauve sofa. Upon every other piece of furniture in the house, thou mayest freely sit, but upon this sofa, the mauve sofa, thou shalt not sit, for on the day thou shalt sit thereupon you will surely die!

And then one day came the fall. And there appeared on the mauve sofa a stain…a red stain…a red jelly stain. And my wife assembled our three children in front of the jelly-stained mauve sofa, and said, "Children, take a good look at that." Laura was about four years old, Mallory was like two and a half, Johnny was six months.

"Children, that is a stain. That is a red stain. That is a red jelly stain. And the man at the sofa store says it is not coming out…not ever, not for all eternity. Do you know how long eternity is, children? Eternity is how long you're going to sit there until one of you tells me who put the red jelly stain on the mauve sofa." And they just sat there terrified. Nobody was going to say a word because they knew what was going to happen.

That was a long time ago. Both the yiy-yiy couch and the mauve sofa have been gone for a long time, and it's kind of a funny thing, all my good memories are about the yiy-yiy couch. To this day, I can close my eyes, and I can remember coming in the door from work, throwing those little bodies on that couch, watching them bounce up and down, hearing those giggles that came right down from their bellies on the yiy-yiy couch.

My only memory of the mauve sofa is when I ate a jelly donut on it and left a secret stain…because I wasn't telling anybody, man! And then this weird thing: you get a mauve sofa and then all of a sudden all the rest of the furniture in that room that used to look okay looks kind of shabby. And then you have to swap all that out and upgrade it to keep up with the mauve sofa, and then you never actually use the room because now it's too nice. Strange thing: we call them our possessions. I think we do that because they end up possessing us.

Now, Martin Luther King, in a great sermon once said, "The problem about getting too involved in our possessions is we get over involved in the possessor (which is us) and forget our dependence on God."

Another thing I think this little guy would tell you when he would try to lure you away from God is, "Worry about me! Worry about money!" There was a survey cited by CBS, channel 5. What do you think is the number one subject people worry about most? It's money. Everything going on in this world, we worry most about money…our money.

Jesus said to His disciples, "Then Jesus said to His disciples: 'Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.'" Strange thing: I have the illusion that what I need to keep me from worrying about money is more money. If I just had more money, I wouldn't worry about my money. But we keep getting more and more money, and we keep thinking more and more about money. We keep worrying more about…more money does not bring relief from worrying about money.

This Tuesday, I was on the phone with a friend of mine who leads a church back in the Midwest, and we actually had to stop the conversation because he had a team from his church, including some of his own family members, who were in Haiti when the earthquake struck. And so, you can imagine, the whole world's focus has gone there, the intensity for him this last week. And he ended up…we were in contact yesterday, having to charter a flight to try to get into Haiti and try to get that team out.

In talking with people on the ground there, part of the word that came back was that things are actually worse than what the media is able to convey right now, that from 30 miles outside of Port-au-Prince, every building has just been flattened, and the people who were inside them killed, and that survivors are huddled over the rubble as the gravesites for their loved ones. By the thousands…and of course, the infrastructure already was so under-resourced that it's impossible to know how many tens of thousands. Fifty thousand people, he said, walking on a road towards Cap, Haiti. And we look at that and all of a sudden things look really different.

We're giving as a church, just immediate first response, $12,000 to World Vision, some ministry partners…one of whom is kind of a partner ministry with our church…to help with relief efforts there. And if you want to join in, you could write a check and just put "Haiti Relief" on it. Some folks will want to give directly like through World Vision…Nance and I are doing that…or some organization. You can go online and do that.

When money tries to pull me away from God, it never creates a tender heart for the sufferings of others. It will always try to make me preoccupied about and worried over my money. It'll say, "Worry about me."

Another thing that unredeemed money will tell you is, "Giving is a good idea in theory, but it's a bad idea in practice." Jesus would often say these striking statements like, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over…" And you understand that is not a mechanical way to get rich or something, but there is a dynamic we step into when we give. And it just becomes an adventure.

There is a guy I know down in Southern California. He had been through school, he had debts, he was fairly newly married, and he would give but with kind of a grudging spirit. And he said, "If there is one thing I don't like, it's money stories. It's when people talk about giving and then God is generous to them. That never happens to me. I just am tired of hearing those stories, but I'm going to keep giving."

And then the strangest thing happened, totally unexpected. There was an estate deal, a relative whom he barely knew, and he ended up receiving enough money to pay off his school debts, and be quite generous with it, and then have something left over. He said, "I don't know what to do now. I have a money story, and I never liked money stories. I don't believe in them."

And again, this is not a mechanical deal, it is not a weighted, satisfy selfish desires, but it just simply…it just simply is true. You cannot out give God. And I just have never known somebody who has stepped into generosity and regretted it. But unredeemed money will whisper to you, "Yes, giving is a good idea, but not today. You can't afford it today."

Paul has this striking statement when he writes to the church at Corinth about another group of believers. He says, "Out of the most severe trial…" and this equation is so fascinating to me, "…their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity." Overflowing joy, tremendous poverty equals rich generosity. One of the biggest lies unredeemed money spreads is that what is keeping you from being generous is just lack of funds, and that more money will make you more generous, that you really have a generous heart, the only reason you're not giving now is because things are really tight, but one day you'll have more money and then you'll be more generous.

The reality is one of the most consistent findings in the field of finance is that people with lower incomes give a higher percentage of their money than people in higher income brackets. Averaged over the general population, that remains true year after year.

Another statement that unredeemed money would tell you is, "Avoid clarity about your financial reality. Avoid clarity." And, man, do people pay a price for this one! What often happens is somebody feels bad about their financial life. They've been spending too much, they're not saving enough, they're behind in their bills, they're in debt, and they have credit issues. This creates anxiety and a vague sense of guilt, and how do they deal with it? By just avoiding reality. "I just don't want to know."

And at the precise moment when they need greatest clarity about exactly what their financial situation is, when they most need to sit down with somebody and figure out precisely "How much am I in debt, what are my resources?" and so, they run the other direction and just go into avoidance mode. And I can't tell you how often this just leads to disaster. They just hope something will happen to bail them out. And money will do that. You know, part of why we'll have classes on financial management, and mentors who work with people and couples and so is just…if you have anxieties about money, step one is just lean into clarity.

Another thing that unredeemed money would tell you is, "There is such a thing as enough; you just don't have it yet, but keep running after it because you'll get there." Bill Hybels, friend of mine, noted a survey where they're asking people like "What is your favorite recreational activity?" You know what the number one favorite recreational activity Americans list for themselves is? Shopping! Not a sport, not a hobby, not being with friends, not learning and reading…shopping, for crying out loud.

Bill's wife, Lynne, decided she wanted to kind of get off the consumer treadmill. Just felt like that was getting a little more of her heart than she wanted, and had kind of an adventure with God around this, and she decided that what she would do is not buy any clothing for 12 months. No shoes, no dresses, nothing just for a year, and see how that went.

Bill is one hundred percent Dutch, so he was very happy about this decision. But then Lynne decided not only was she going to do that, she was going to give the money that she would have spent on clothing to AIDS, to fighting AIDS in Africa. And she was so engaged with that, she started giving more money than she would have spent on clothes. She actually started giving so much to that that by the end of the year, Bill was begging her to go back to buying clothes and shopping like usual.

Money will whisper to you, "If you just keep getting more, it'll get you to enough." And one of the things that following Jesus will do for people sometimes is this real counterrevolutionary deal. It would be possible for many of us to do it here. To say, "You know what? I have enough." Instead of this reflexive, instinctive "I have to keep increasing my lifestyle. So, if more resources come my way, it means more, bigger, better, newer, more," let's just say, "Enough! I'm done with trying to keep up with the Joneses. I am declaring today, 'Enough Day.' My lifestyle is adequate for my life, and if God sends more resources my way, instead of just thoughtlessly trying to build that up, I'm going to actually ask Him, 'God, could You use this to bless other people?'"

Well, I think that is what money would say to us if it was unredeemed and trying to pull you away from God. But that is not the whole story. Stuff, value, money, possessions, these were all God's ideas, and He doesn't intend for them to go away. He wants them to be redeemed because money can be a force to draw us to God. So, here is what I think money would say to us if it was redeemed, if it was actually helping us grow closer to God. I think the first thing money would say in that case is, "Don't look to me for contentment. Don't look to money."

I want to tell you a story that has been around the church where I used to work for many decades. The guy who was kind of a founding elder there was a New Testament professor named Dr. B...Dr. Bilezikian. We all called him "Dr. B." He used to walk from his house to Wheaton College where he worked. I had him for a class there when I was going through school. And one day while he was on his way to Wheaton, he noticed a neighbor had put a sign out in front of his door. It's a beautiful, very artistic, very creative sign that had the street name and address and so marked on it. And Dr. B loves beauty. He is from France, and he is a keen lover of beauty. And he said just walking past that sign gave him great pleasure. He just found himself thinking about it.

And the next day when he left his house, he thought to himself, I'm actually kind of looking forward to seeing that sign. And there was this sign out in front. Dr. B had that same surge of admiration. "This is beautiful work of art!" This happened every day. He just would find himself looking forward to seeing that little sign, until one day the strangest thing happened. He was walking past that house, saw that little piece of art, only this time his mind didn't say, Boy, that's cool! This time, his mind said, Why should your neighbor have one of those and not you? Think of how much joy it would give you to possess something of such beauty and have the whole neighborhood see it and know it belongs to you. You ought to have that. You must have that.

And it was the strangest thing, now walking past his neighbor's house did not bring him joy anymore. Now it just troubled him. Now every time he saw that sign it was a reminder of what he did not have, and he knew it would be expensive. He was working as a teacher, did not make very much money. He and his wife were putting their children through school. He knew his wife would not want to go for spending that much money on a sign.

And then eventually one day he was walking past the sign again, and a little voice whispered to him, "Dr. B…" because even God calls him "Dr. B." "Dr. B, couldn't you enjoy that sign without owning it? Couldn't you be happy for the guy who has it? Couldn't you be happy that people get to see it? Couldn't you admire it yourself without torturing yourself over how to possess it? You can admire without having to acquire." And that is what he did. He just agreed with that thought, and he would walk past the sign, and say to himself, I'll just admire without the need to acquire.

Now, it got really quiet as I was telling that story. Anybody ever have any experience like that one? Have anything you've ever walked past? This is what the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Philippi. Let's read this together out loud. "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."

Now, a lot of times you'll hear those words "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength" but they get ripped out of context and applied to all kinds of stuff. The actual strength Paul is talking about is the strength to say, "I don't have to have everything the world tells me I have to have in order to be content. In fact," Paul says, "I have learned the secret of being content." Contentment is actually something you learn, not something you buy.

And he says, "I have now learned the capacity for contentment even in situations when I'm hungry. Even when I'm in want, I can be content, not through my own power. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. I'm not waiting for my situation to make me content anymore because situation changes." If there is anything we should have learned in the last year and a half or so, it is this: finances and markets and cash flows go up and down all the time. Anybody here notice that?

I heard a guy from Southern California on the radio say recently, "You know, my wife and I had been wanting to downsize for some time. We used to live in a $500,000 home. Now we live in a $250,000 home and we didn't even move." Situations change all…and if you're waiting for a situation to make you content, it won't happen.

Something else I think redeemed money would say to all of us to pull us towards God is, "You will like your life better if you give than if you don't. You'll like your life better." Jesus, the smartest Man who ever lived said, "Not it's better to give than receive, not you ought to give." He said, "It is more blessed…" Now blessing is that word in the Bible from Jesus that describes the good life…we talked about this a few weeks ago…that describes the good life we all want and we all associate with more money. Jesus says, "It's available! It's not bad to want the good life, the blessed life. And receiving is not a bad thing, but you enter into the good life, the blessed life more through giving."

A friend of mine was on a mission trip to Honduras a while ago. They were doing some work with street kids, and my friend Gary said he picked up a little shadow. This little guy just kind of attached himself to Gary, and however Gary was standing, if he was doing this, this little guy would do this. Eventually they got into a conversation. Gary only knows two phrases in Spanish, and so he used one of them, "¿Cómo se llama, usted?" And the little boy said, "Christian." And then he started talking a mile a minute. And so, then Gary said, "No comprendo." That was his only other phrase, "No comprendo."

But the little guy wouldn't stop talking, and he put his arm around Gary's waist, this little guy. And after a while, it became clear he was asking Gary a question. And Gary was just getting embarrassed and tired of saying "No comprendo" all the time, so finally he just said, "Si." And the boy got a huge smile on his face, and went racing off to the little hut where he lived. And it occurred to Gary he had no idea what he had just said yes to. Maybe he had promised to take the boy's family to America or give his daughter in marriage, but whatever it was, clearly it was a big deal.

And the boy came running back, and he had a carton of chocolate milk, and he handed it to Gary. Gary pointed to his chest. "For me?" "Si!" Big smile. And then Gary realized what made this boy so excited was not what Gary thought it was, not what the kid thought he was going to get; it was that even he could give. And Gary said he would have cried. He was afraid that little guy would think he didn't like his gift.

So, he called a translator over, and he said, "Thank you for the milk," and he took off his wristwatch, and he put it on the boy's wrist, and he said, "Every time you look at this watch, you ask Jesucristo to help you keep being as loving as you are until the next time you look at this watch. And every time I see a carton of milk, I will remember how much I need Jesus to help me be as generous as a poor little boy in Honduras."

Paul makes a fascinating statement. "He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands…" not just to be honest, not just for his self respect, although that too, "…that he may have something to share with those in need." We are made with a need to give. And now, in Jesus' community, everybody can come. Somebody has been in a life of thievery, you're welcome to come on in. Get to work because we all have a need to give, because "it is more blessed to give than to receive." You will like your life better when you do it.

Another thing I think redeemed money would say is, "The time to start giving is now. It's now, not later." This is from the book of Malachi. This kind of thing is all over in the Old Testament. God says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this…" Now that is a unique phrase. God only says that here. "Test Me in this…" like, "I dare you," "…and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

Now, the literal meaning of this word tithe is a tenth part. Tithing is the practice of donating one-tenth of my income to God, and I mention this because sometimes people will use the word a little loosely. Like, somebody might say, "I tithe $20 a week." Well, for the math-impaired among us, if you gave $1,000 a year that would be tithing if your income was…okay, for the math-impaired among us, ten percent…if you gave $1,000 a year, that would be tithing if your income was $10,000 dollars a year. We have a little more impairment than I thought.

Now, tithing was ingrained in the people of Israel. It was spoken of in many places in the Old Testament. Leviticus says, "A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD." A pastor I know put it like this, "If you haven't gotten in this routine, just get into it. If God gives you $10, you give Him $1. If God gives you $100, you give Him $10. If God gives you $1,000, you give Him $100. Just get in the habit. If God gives you $10,000, you give Him $1,000. If God gives you $100,000, you give Him $10,000. If God gives you $1 million, you give Him $100,000. If God gives you $10 million…if God gives $10 million, you come see me."

Now, inevitably, this question will come up: "Are we legalistically obligated to tithe because we live in the New Testament, in the era of grace?" And the really short answer is "No. It is not a rule. It is not a legalistic obligation. It is not a law." But I sometimes kind of think about it like this…would I really want to say to God, "You know, people in Old Testament Israel gave a tithe, and now I have all this Scripture and history and tradition that they had, plus I have the teachings of Jesus, I have His blood poured out on the Cross for my forgiveness, I have His resurrection raised up for my hope, I have the Holy Spirit as my Guide, I have spiritual gifts for my calling, I have the church as my community, and in response to this, I'd like to lower my giving down to like five percent."? I wouldn't want to say that to God.

For most of us in our financial situation, a tithe is much more like a floor than it is like a ceiling. It's kind of like training wheels, I think, and it was really that way for Israel, to just help people enter into generosity in a concrete way. Giving is not an obligation. Giving is not something God does to raise money; giving is something God does to raise people, because it's an invitation for us to step into kingdom reality.

Another thing I think that this little money guy would say if he was leading us towards God is, "Make generosity your first priority, not just a priority, but your first priority." And again, you see this in the Bible. The writer of Proverbs says, "Honor the LORD with your wealth, and from the first of all your produce." And you see the apostle Paul in the New Testament talking about that same idea.

Question: show of hands on this one. How many of you pay your bills online now? How many people pay your bills online? Okay, a good chunk of us. How many of you pay your bills the old-fashioned way, get out checkbooks and stamps and envelopes, and do it that way? Okay, some. How many of you have given up paying your bills and just hope they go away? Okay, apparently some of us are doing it that way.

From the time that we started having children, Nancy used to pay the bills, and more recently it seemed like it would be a good idea to swap roles, so I have been doing it, and the first time I did, I found that paying the bills did not give me a great deal of joy. I found that Nancy was not asking, "Honey, let me know which night you're going to be bill paying because I want to be around you that night. You're just magnetic and electric on that night."

So, here is one thing I've started to do, because I still do the old envelope deal, is when it's time to write out the first check, I'll say a little prayer, and I'll make out the first check to this church right here, and I'll think about how grateful I am for Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. I'll think about people I love, whom I get to share my heart with. I'll think about…I had a woman come up after the service last night, and she and her husband have been here for a few years, and she said, "I'm so grateful for Shepherd's Village. The people who are there are helping me raise my children." And I'll think about how many children come to know about what it means for them to be loved by God here. I'll think about how grateful I am that for so long this has been a Jesus church and for what happens around the Bay area.

And I'll just take a moment, and it kind of changes as I'm making out bills when that first one is there. And here is the deal: if you do that, if you give the first gift to God and make it kind of a holy moment, nobody else will see or know. Just you and God. And you're stepping into a stream of reality, spiritual reality.

And that brings me to…I want to close with the greatest verse on giving in the Bible. And it doesn't mention this guy at all. It doesn't even have the word money in it. It's about the most generous Giver ever, and the most staggering gift of all time. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not die but have everlasting life." And for 2,000 years in every country, every culture, that Man has been changing lives and inspiring sacrifice and gifts like no other force on earth.

What did that gift cost God? Suffering, pain, sacrificing the riches of heaven for poverty on earth, bearing the burden of my sin and guilt, experiencing the debts of death and hell. What did that gift give to me? Everything. Forgiveness of my sin, newness of life, the power of redemption at work even in me, a new identity as the child of God so that whatever happens in any situation on a human level my well being is not at risk, eternity, a sense of security that cannot be defeated, a purpose for living, and a hope for dying. He gave everything for you. Will you give everything to Him?

And now, here is where it gets really personal with this idol, because this is a very powerful idol in our day and in our hearts. Here is a question, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, if you are a follower of Jesus: "Will you fully surrender your money, your possessions, your income, your lifestyle? And we sing songs about this. We'll sing one of those in a few moments, and it's pretty easy to sing songs, but we're not talking about singing a song right now. Will you really surrender? Will you give to God full authority over your financial wealth? And again, it's not a legalistic thing. It will look differently from one person to another. We don't judge anybody on this. This is between me and God…you and God.

I have a friend who struggled with this for so many years. In his spiritual life, this is the biggest area of struggle because of his background and worry and so. And finally, he just got tired of being torn back and forth between wanting to follow God on the one hand but desire and worry and acquisition on the other. He just got tired of it. And he sat down at his desk, and he got out a piece of paper, and he just wrote down everything…his money, his salary, his income, his house, his car, his clothes…and he said, "God, I'm deeding it over." He just wrote it out, "God, You're the Owner. From this day forward, it's not mine. I'm the manager. I'm the steward. You're the Owner." And he kept that piece of paper with him until the day he died. And it led to so much freedom…so much freedom.

If you need to settle that surrender issue, now would be a great time to do it. Would you bow your heads and pray? I want to invite you to have a moment with God right now about nobody else but you and Him. Maybe the Holy Spirit is tugging at you right now. I don't know what that will look like for you. Maybe you don't either. Maybe it's scary. God so loved the world He gave. If you haven't done it and you know Jesus and He is in your life, will you surrender to Him right now?

"God, I want that idol to come down. You know it scares me. You know, God, that my possessions are what feels like my security, or what feels like enough, or I've been just clutching to that, but I want to surrender."

Heavenly Father, as best we can, we make You (with Your help) Lord over our financial lives. We now openly, boldly name and confess that money idol that is so powerful where we live even in lives in this room. God, would You keep working at our hearts and gnawing away at us until You bring us to the freedom that comes when we surrender? We're so grateful for the gift of Your Son Jesus who though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor so that we through Him might be made rich. We pray in His name, Amen.