JANUARY 3, 2021 SUNDAY MESSAGE
JOIN US LIVE AT 10 AM ON SUNDAYS!
COMMUNION:
(1 COR. 11:23B-26)
“The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
SAVE THE DATE: The 2020 Marriage Retreat is scheduled to be Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and November 8!
PRAYER REQUESTS:
We are hosting prayer team meetings for both the congregation at large and individuals to sign up for individual prayer.
SUGGESTIONS FOR WORSHIP:
Coty Miller’s own “Praise & Worship” Spotify playlist and “Praise & Worship” YouTube playlist (slightly different from each other), both of diverse music that are being constantly updated!
Bethel Music :
Bethel Music’s hours of live music YouTube Playlist, also being constantly updated
Bethel provides chords to most (if not all) of their songs here (just have to register email, but free!)
Live worship moments from the Upper Room YouTube Playlist
Journal writing! (I’m a writer too, so sometimes creative writing and writing my thoughts to God is my form of worship.)
Declare and worship with truth by singing and praying scriptures.
WORSHIP NIGHT! Dedicate a night to worship with friends and family, your house church or neighbors, those who need prayer, love worship, or just enjoy music through a video chat platform like Zoom. You can have one person leading at a time (switching off to whoever else wants to lead) while others sing along, pray, or prophesy, etc.
Serving your community, both online, in person, or both, is a great way to worship God, from spreading encouragement and God’s Word online to physically serving food to others. If you are able to go out and serve, click here for opportunities.
TRANSCRIPTED SERMON:
Happy New Year!! First, I want to say “thanks” to pastor Sam for speaking to us last week! He did an INCREDIBLE job teaching how to trust Jesus (and the things He says) in the middle of the storms by sharing about him and his families storms. Such a good job, make sure you check it out, if you missed it!
TODAY, we are in a New Year and we are starting a NEW Series which is kind of a mini JOURNEY. As we have settled deeper into COVID, the need to lean on God and go to the scriptures to learn about our Finances, Money, and Stewardship, became apparent.
Outside of a Pandemic, issues concerning finances are at the top of our normal stressors (you don’t have enough to meet your needs OR you want help on investing and stewarding it) people lose TONS of sleep in a NORMAL year when it comes to this issue!
During the Pandemic we have seen an unsettled economy on a GLOBAL scale:
All across the US, job insecurity has become a normal part of our conversations (if not you, then someone you know!)
We, as a church, have felt the impact in various areas
That got us talking as a leadership, and we began to ask ourselves:
“how often do people study the Bible to make decisions and seek God’s counsel for wisdom with their finances?”
When was the last time WE studied this topic as a church?
This seems like a good time to pray for God’s provision and learn about the way MONEY is supposed to work according to the Kingdom of Heaven!
Often, when you start a journey, or you want to arrive at a destination, just like in a park or a mall, it helps to begin by establishing your starting point, you go to the map and you find the marker that says, “you are here.”
I want to help us do that by telling you about something I call “COASTER RULES:”
By “coaster,” I mean those little discs on your table that you put under a drink…why do we use them??
Why do you use coasters? Well, if you are one of the:
Pro-Coaster Folks (my guess is MOST of you fit this description)
you think, “of course you need to use a coaster” - Your parents may have even enforced this as a rule in your household!
Using a coaster is simply “taking care” of the things God has given me (if it gets damaged we might have to replace this one unnecessarily)
SO, using a coaster = responsible stewardship (you poor soul, sorry you weren’t taught that, let me help you).
BUT, MAY I INTRODUCE YOU TO IDEA THAT THERE ARE “OTHERS” OUT THERE…
No Coaster Folks =
they have ALWAYS had a second-hand coffee table with rings already on it - that’s just a part of coffee tables…
maybe even found it next to a dumpster (and wondered why someone threw out a perfectly good coffee table - all it had was a few rings on the top
So, rings on a coffee table bore witness to somebody's wasteful tendencies.
These rich people, always throwing things out and getting new stuff!
What was the same about my background and my friend’s??
We grew up in some form or level of poverty interacting with a group wherein the majority of them we from from a wealthier demographic!
She and I jokingly talked about writing a book called “Coaster Rules!”
We all come from different backgrounds and
Wealth subcultures create their own set of expectations, social norms, their own language, beliefs, understandings, and even HIDDEN RULES about the way the world works because they come from a completely different knowledge base and set of experiences.
“Coasters Rules” are just a funny way to see it BUT there are a whole set of other UNSPOKEN expectations when you cross from one to the other.
What I want you to notice is how quickly we normalize and moralize our subculture of origin or the one we prefer? No matter which one we come from, we draw lines about the way things are “supposed” to be & villainize the way OTHERS do it!
AND Breaking these rules is often translated as “rude” “irresponsible” or even “morally and BIBLICALLY incorrect!”
To be clear, both sides have pros/cons when you weigh them against the Kingdom of God,
and both can learn from earth other IF they can come together on equal footing.
But what happens is WE INTERNALIZE these things or accept them as true, they become a part of our IDENTITY and we will defend our ways of life aggressively if necessary (or passive aggressively if you come from a wealthy world) haha!
Everyone THINKS they are immune to it but none of us are!!
I want us to analyze ourselves today as we start this series…(remember the map: “YOU ARE HERE”):
I can’t define that for you? I don’t know your background, so you need to determine: “What is your starting point?”
We are rarely in a situation where we must confront this…Sometimes in marriage?!
I want to offer some tools to help us all to locate ourselves on the financial topography in America during the 21 Century in Indianapolis (start big then focus).
“what values inform the decisions about how we spend our money”
My hope is that we can begin to identify it and ultimately remove our IDENTITY from it so we operate on a completely different paradigm moving forward.
Let’s take a look at one of Paul’s writings to see what God says. Turn to Philippians 4 verses 10-13...
Philippians 4:10-13
This is Paul speaking...
10 I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me.
What is Paul referring to?
The Church in Philippi sent a FINANCIAL gift of money with Epaphroditus to Paul while he was in prison.
Verse 10 continues...
Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have LEARNED (Key!) to be CONTENT whatever the CIRCUMSTANCES!
Paul says, “I have LEARNED to be content whatever the circumstances.”
So, there is a learning curve to becoming content in whatever circumstances.
HOW did he learn that?
Verse 12 says...
12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. 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. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
What we read is that Paul experienced extremes on both sides & realized:
He was okay and able to have his needs met? NO He was hungry sometimes.
He was able to realize it wasn’t the priority so he was...
..able to trust God for his needs not matter the circumstances &
not fall into the trap of thinking that either (abundance or need) reflects one's morality or responsibility.
I would also add that these are likely not lessons that can be learned by imagining yourself in a hypothetical situation. We all tend to be more charitable to our own situation than we are with others.
Those with a high level of wealth cannot, in their imagination, think of being in a scenario of poverty and conclude that you would be content.
You might THINK you would be fine but unless you have experienced the lack of control, the uncertainty, and the lack of privileges attributed to those who are wealthy, you don’t know.
On the flipside, I don’t think those in poverty can hypothetically imagine how they would handle wealth unless they’ve had to do it.
You might THINK you would give lots of money away and think of all the people you would help up. You might think you could own material things without them owning you…
but you don’t know unless you’ve actually had wealth and dealt with the expectations & responsibility of stewarding it...especially when others rely on you for THEIR income!
What Paul has...is a LEARNED TRAIT and HE has been “battle tested” in the trenches of both
wealth and privilege as well as
hunger and imprisonment.
HE HAS BEEN STRETCHED TO HIS LIMITS SO THAT HE HAS REALIZED IT ALL FAILS EVENTUALLY….
CHRIST ALONE IS
THE ONLY CONSTANT,
THE ONLY FOUNDATION THAT DOESN’T FAIL,
The only SOVEREIGN in the storm (Shout out to Sam’s sermon)....When there are financial torrents raging against us, Paul’s level of contentment says, we get to look into storm and say I’m not afraid of you storm...YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID, don’t you know I HAVE JESUS IN MY BOAT!
GOD IS THE ONLY POWER that doesn’t fade,
the only king worth our trust, AND
The Kingdom is the only financial system that sustains us whether you find yourself dealing in the problems of abundance or difficulties of lack!!
Again, Paul didn’t say, you won’t lack...he just said, you CAN be content in the midst of it.
I am convinced we cannot fully cultivate it without the experiences but, by God’s grace, we get some sense through Paul’s words.
So, after all that Paul has experienced, how did cultivate contentment in all circumstances??
Let me re-read verse 13 to you...
13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
That verse? I thought that verse was reserved for athletes to...
Make it into the NFL and win the superbowl
To win the Gold in the olympics
win American Ninja Warrior, or
even tear a phonebook in half (Shout out to Powerteam: Evangelicalism in the 1980’s was weird)!!
I guess, in a way, they ARE right. We would all agree that these are INCREDIBLY difficult things to accomplish and only a few people on earth will be able to do it. So what does that say about the actual context of this verse?
The ability to become content in all circumstances evades the majority of us the majority of the time!
The assumption here is that THIS FEAT of OBEDIENCE is SO DIFFICULT that it requires Tremendous Strength to accomplish it and God will have to step in….
AND Maybe only a few of us will ever reach Paul’s level!
That should weigh heavy on us all!
If you walk away from today’s sermon and think, “Got it...my heart isn’t attached to my money or things. Others might struggle with this but I’m good. So, what else you got?! Let’s move on to the more practical parts of the series?!”
We will get there but if you thinking you can get your money right without getting your heart right, first? You are poorer and needier than you could ever realize! You’ve already gone bankrupt!!
If Paul implies that you will NEED the strength of God to pull this off, you may want to lean in and ask deeper questions as to the connection of your heart and your accumulated assets!
You might want to stop and pray, “God, money is more powerful than I realize and I am going to need YOUR STRENGTH if you am going to handle it correctly”
BUT (and HEAR THIS)...Paul ALSO IMPLIES that, with the strength of God, it CAN be accomplished.
What we do get here is the benefit of
Paul’s witness of having visited the extremes of both and
he extends us the professional courtesy of sending us a message of wisdom that extends OUT OF that experience!
“Christ’s strength enables and empowers us to be prepared to endure any financial circumstance in life”
THIS TRUTH FREES YOU from placing your values, your priorities, and your identity in whatever financial structure you currently reside in! Your IDENTITY is NOT determined by your financial subculture! It is found in a Kingdom Economy led by the revolutionary example!
You see, JESUS was located in between these two worlds and lived His life out of that space:
On one hand he is the Exalted King of the Universe possessing ALL the riches in the world and having access to every single resource known to humanity...and He could have done anything He wanted with it!
On the other hand, He was a homeless man from Nazareth with “no place to lay his head.” He was lowly, humble, operating without need of resources but trusting God’s provision along the way.
This isn’t a “reasonable” balance - it’s completely OTHER! It was both ideals, in their extreme, taking place at the same time.
This is why He says,
on one hand, “the poor you will have with you always” when an exorbitant amount of expensive perfume is poured on him and,
in the same Gospel, proclaims, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to go to heaven!”
His Financial values and ethic are completely something outside of our logic...it’s the Kingdom and I think this is what Paul discovered…
The kingdom of heaven lives outside of poverty, wealth, success, stability, or lack thereof...and any of these categories and it places us in tension between
Jesus, the King enthroned in the heavens whose footstool is the earth
Jesus, the homeless man from Nazareth who had nowhere to lay his head.
And when you operate:
according to the Kingdom of heaven with your finances, it WILL look like irresponsibility to the world.
according to the financial systems of the world, it will be irresponsible according to the kingdom of heaven.
SO, I want to bring us back to the original question as we apply Paul’s words to our lives: What is your starting point?
Since not everyone is coming from the same place, EVERYTHING ELSE we talk about for the rest of this journey will be filtered through the lens of your current ECONOMIC location.
Two levels of location need to take place for the purpose of this series:
MACRO: we need to locate ourselves on the economic landscape of the globe.
MICRO: inside the American Landscape....Ruby Payne.
1. MACRO:
ALL OF US in AMERICA need to understand that In the broader sense of the world, we are the most wealthy nation.
A MODEST salary in the United States, is in the top 2% of the world.
Let me put that in perspective, the average middle class family lives like royalty in the eyes of those are actual royalty in other places!
SO, on a macro-level, you have to walk away from today knowing that you and I, WE...are rich! That means that, when the bible gives warnings to the rich, assume it applies to US before you assume it doesn’t!!
Second, we must acknowledge that we live in a MOSTLY Capitalist Society
Typically, when we study the Bible and Finances the study is actually giving us best practices for a Capitalist Financial System
Hear me: wise biblical financial practices are NOT synonymous with becoming a great capitalist.
“Biblical Financial Wisdom” supersedes all economic frameworks!
That means that, as we progress in our journey through finances, we must understand that:
BW is NOT a means to an end for you to become a more successful capitalist.
Jesus didn’t operate in a modern capitalist society...and he still operated pretty biblically if you ask me!
Whether you agree with or disagree with capitalism, we are immersed in it, you have been discipled BY IT, and we must interact in it.
So, listen, because
the ORIENTATION is
pretty important here…
Capitalism is not BIBLICALLY ENDORSED and it is a means to an end - or a TOOL - for you to utilize towards the advancement of the agenda of Kingdom of heaven.
Think about that - the church in China or Sweden, and everywhere in between - must apply the same biblical wisdom we use here within their economic frameworks too.
May we be cautious not to confuse our current or preferred economic theory/strategy within capitalism, with scriptural wisdom, lest we teach them as “good stewardship” or even as biblical stewardship.
Now, lets dial it in to the micro level...
2. MICRO:
When you consider the landscape INSIDE America, there are broad categories we can think in. Remember the Coaster Rules? That wasn’t just my own observation...
DR. RUBY PAYNE is:
An American educator and author best known for her work on social-cultural classes determined by wealth and income.
Her studies prove there are predictable social norms, assumptions, language...an entire sub-culture revolving around different segments of society based on wealth.
She uses three major categories (upper, middle and lower income groups)
She studied the "hidden rules" - characteristics that a member of one of the three main social classes possesses
Use these as markers to help you determine with subculture you identify with most!
that makes communicating...
Remember, the way you relate to your wealth isn’t just a compartmentable segment of your life, it becomes a social identity that shapes us and has a dramatic effect on your relationships:
with God
with God’s people - the church
In your service and mission to others
For the REFLECTION TIME, instead of a brief moment of reflection/ interaction, I actually have an assignment for you all to do THIS WEEK. THERE ARE 2 PARTS:
One, we are going to send out a pdf with a table that gives you some of these norms and lets you self-determine your starting point: the American Cultural system!
Second, before next week's sermon, I want to get a little feedback on this from you all. This week, with the PDF from Dr. Payne, we are going to circulate a Biblical Financial Literacy POP QUIZ.
The church throws around lots of terms with the assumption that we all know what we are talking about.
What is giving,
What is an offering,
What is tithing?
We, as a staff, took it, and realized we weren’t all on the same page with the definitions of certain terms being thrown around the church so I want you to know what you all think!
Since our goal today is “Biblical Contentment,” let me give you a definition. It is the ACT of removing your IDENTITY FROM any financial culture, placing it in the Kingdom of Heaven so that you are completely free from the influence of and boundaries attached to it.
Contentment has NOTHING to do with your ability to satisfy your needs or all your desires, it has EVERYTHING to do with your internal ability to rest in God’s strength knowing that your identity is found in God and God ONLY.
THIS WEEK As you pray and reflect on your own consider,
What keeps you from being content in God alone?
How are you going to remove your Identity from it?
As you locate yourself on the economic landscape, may you allow yourself to:
Stretch the limits of your heart and mind to see past whatever your financial experiences have been and consider the other side.
Don’t be so assumptive about the other side.
Don’t be so judgemental about the way they use whatever God has given them and don’t be as quick to hurl insults either!!
If you want to see God work in you and your finances, and I think we ALL DO, this is where the journey starts...let’s do it together!
COMMISSIONING:
As Jesus said in John 20:21,
"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Go, be the Church!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.