Money Talks: Generosity, Gratitude, and Faithful Stewardship

Listen. The bible's fascinating. Jesus spoke about money and possessions more than almost any single topic. A third of his parables touch in on economics. One in 13 verses in the synoptic gospels, that's Matthew, Mark, and Luke, address wealth, generosity, and poverty. There are around 500 verses on prayer in the bible, fewer than 500 explicit verses on faith, and more than 2,000 verses on dealing with money. In other words, how we handle money is not a side issue. It's fundamentally a discipleship issue. God knows how powerful money is. [00:50:46] (47 seconds)  #BiblicalMoneyTruth

And the church in Macedonia at the time was almost living like a hell on earth. Let me read to you. And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian church. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty wound up in rich generosity. How's that for a little bit of an oxymoron? That doesn't look like it should make sense. In the midst of very severe trial, they had a overflowing joy. [00:53:21] (34 seconds)  #GenerosityInTrials

Because the tithe is returning to the Lord that's which belongs to him in the first place. And do you know the reason I believe that Christians don't tithe is this, is because right in the middle is not faith. It's fear. You cannot worship both God and money. And so what happens is Sunday becomes the last day of the week instead of being the first day of the week. [01:13:18] (21 seconds)  #WorshipOverWealth

When you remove the filter that focuses on what I don't have, it's so freeing. All of a sudden, you begin to realize how in actual fact you have all you need to be a generous person. Can you speak? You can be generous. Can you move your arms and your legs? You can be generous. Do you make yourself a coffee? Then you can be generous and make somebody else a coffee as well. [01:02:13] (32 seconds)  #GiveWithWhatYouHave

Father, I specifically pray for people in this room, people watching online right now. They're finding themselves locked into an old way. They're found finding themselves just shackled to old ways of living. They're finding themselves trapped almost like in a prison. Lord, as we practice gratitude, do what you did in Acts chapter 16. Lord, I pray that just as Paul and Paul and Silas as their chains came off and the prison doors flung open and the stocks and chains came off their body. Lord, I pray that as we practice gratitude and faithfulness and thankfulness, Lord, I pray that you would break us out of the prison cells that we find ourselves in, in Jesus' name. [01:21:35] (49 seconds)  #FreedomThroughGratitude

Back in 2012, Forbes Magazine put out printed this art this article, and the article was called this, is the bible the ultimate financial guide? They brought their financial gurus, business gurus together, looked at principles from the bible, and to summarize the article, they said this, maybe it's time to go back to Sunday school. In other words, the best, most authentic way to understand money and get ahead is actually take the principles found in scripture and put them into practice. [00:50:08] (38 seconds)  #BiblicalFinancialWisdom

But the problem is this. Right? It's almost as like as though the world, the rules are set by the rich to keep the rich rich and to keep the poor poor. And so what happens is this, is money becomes something that inherently we begin to fear, we need more of, we wanna hang on to because we actually don't understand how money works and what it means to have money and the best way to invest, the best way to save, and the best way to be a steward of our finances. [00:48:38] (32 seconds)  #FinancialStewardship

Here's my prayer. We're generous in our words, generous in our actions, generous in our forgiveness, generous in grace, generous in the way we work, generous in the way we worship, generous in the way we get around each other in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad times. And my prayer is this, is in the midst of being a generous church and a generous people, people in this city and around this nation will stop and they will look and say, what is it about you guys? [01:15:04] (30 seconds)  #GenerousChurch