"Money Talks: Understand the Basics"
(Psalm 24:1-2, I Chronicles 29:11-12)
Main Idea: Understanding the basics from God’s perspective on money is the first step toward financial freedom.
This morning we begin our annual series regarding what the Bible teaches about our money and our resources. It’s hard to imagine but the Bible has more to say about money than faith and prayer combined. There are almost 2,350 verses that focus or speak to the issue of money so there are, obviously, some things about money that God wants us to know. We think of money and our resources as something too unworthy for God to be interested in, yet, for some reason, he wanted the writers of the Bible to say a lot about it. It makes you wonder what he knows that we don’t understand.
I believe one of the reasons God spent so much time talking about money in the Bible is because it is such a problem for us as his creation. Stuff has always been a struggle for followers of God. It doesn’t matter if it was sheep and goats in the Book of Genesis or your last overdue notice from Visa; our stuff has always been a problem with God and believers. There are more people in this room today who are struggling in some area of their finances than there are people who are not. My desire in these messages is to help you either for the first time or the hundredth time to finally get on a path of financial freedom. You didn’t get where you are overnight and you won’t get out overnight but if you don’t start getting on the road to freedom financially you will always live with the misery of regret.
There are many things that we could talk about when it comes to money. In this series we are going to talk about understanding the basic principles about money from God’s perspective, how we can avoid the debt trap that so many find themselves and then what we need to do to give faithfully in obedience to God. This morning we are going to start with our need to understand the basics about God’s perspective on money as the first step toward financial freedom.
There are three basic issues we must understand about money and our stuff from God’s perspective: God owns everything, God controls everything and God provides everything. Now that is the opposite of the way we think because we imagine that what is ours is ours, we are in control of our stuff and our life and what we have is because of our own ability. To understand just how confused our thinking is on that, listen to what C. S. Lewis said in his book The Screwtape Letters. The Screwtape Letters is a series of letters written from a senior demon to a junior demon who is trying to keep a person from living a Christian life. He says: "The sense of ownership in general is always to be encouraged. The humans are always putting up claims to ownership which sound equally funny in Heaven and in Hell, and we must keep them doing so…And all the time the joke is that the word ‘mine’ in its fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human being about anything. In the long run either Our Father (The Devil) or the Enemy (God) will say ‘mine’ of each thing that exists, and specially of each man. They will find out in the end, never fear, to whom their time, their souls, and their bodies really belong—certainly not to them, whatever happens. At present the Enemy says ‘mine’ of everything on the…ground that He made it. Our Father hopes in the end to say ‘mine’ of all things on the more realistic and dynamic ground of conquest." (p. 97-99)
In our Scripture for today we see that David, who wrote the psalm and the prayer, had God’s perspective about his possessions. He understood that God owned it all, controlled it all and provided it all. For that reason, when he needed to give it all up for God’s purpose there was joy not regret! So let’s look at what David said and discover how we can find freedom financially by understanding the basics.
The first basic that we need to understand is this: God owns everything (Psalm 24:1-2, I Chron. 29:11). In Psalm 24 David tells us that, "The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it; the world and all its people belong to him." It was a Hebrew way of saying that everything about the earth—in it or on it—belongs to God. Regardless if it is a thing or a person, it is all his. In I Chronicles 29:11 David includes the stars or "the heavens" as belonging to God. So we might say that God owns the oak tree out front to the horseshoe Nebula in the constellation Orion. It all belongs to him. Every person from Bono to Bangladesh is his as well. God owns everything.
Why does he say that? Psalm 24:2 says, "For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths." The reason God says he owns everything is because he created everything! Because he created it, it belongs to him. It not only belongs to him but he has total authority and judgment over it all because he created it. Everything that exists depends on him and is sustained by him. But here is the real issue we need to hear: He has never, ever transferred ownership of anything to you and me! We think he has but he hasn’t. Whatever it is that you think you own, you don’t. It was never yours to start with. Your name may be on the loan and you get the bills but it is all God’s because God owns everything.
I want you to notice something that David said that God owns. He said, "Everything in the heavens and on the earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom." He didn’t say "my kingdom," the kingdom I sweated over, fought for, lead, cried over, protected and ruled. No, he says, "And this is your kingdom." It tells us somewhere along David’s journey he recognized God owns everything and he transferred the ownership of what he thought was his to God, the one to whom it really belonged.
Now let me ask you: What is it that you think you own? Your car, your house, your business, your checkbook, your toothbrush? The Bible says God owns everything because he created, at some level, everything that you think you own. In fact you don’t even own you. The reason you stay so frustrated and struggle so much financially is you have never seriously transferred the ownership of your stuff to God! Your "kingdom," however large or small you may think it is, needs to be transferred to the one to whom it really belongs. Once you make that decision, your responsibilities change. You care even more about how you use God’s stuff that he has loaned you but you are also free from the greed that comes from having more and more stuff. If you are ever going to be free, then you are going to have to transfer the ownership of your stuff to the One it really belongs because God owns everything.
Not only does God own everything but also God controls everything. (I Chron. 29:11-12). David continues his praise to God by declaring, "We adore you as the one who is over all things…for you rule everything." David comes to God with a heart of worship and adoration, confessing that God owns everything but he also is in control, he is over, he rules everything! David could look back on his life—and see that in every blessing and in every struggle God was in control. He could see that God was in control when he was persecuted by Saul. He could see that God was in control when he was broken over his adultery with Bathsheba. He could see that God was in control when his son Absalom tired to steal the kingdom from him. He could see that God was in control when Solomon, his son, was chosen to succeed him. He saw God as the One "over all things" and the ruler "over everything."
I don’t know where and I don’t know when but David did what every one of us must do and that is release the control of our lives and our stuff to God. It doesn’t matter what you think you control, you really don’t. Let me ask you, "Can you control the price of a gallon of gas? Can you control the price of a gallon of milk? Can you control the price of a loaf of bread? Can you control the stock market or the economy?" The answer to all of those is, "No!" If you can’t control the simple price of a loaf of bread, what makes you think you can control all the rest of your life? Besides that, how is your control of your life working for you? You’ve been in control of your money now for a long time so how is that working? Plenty of money in the checkbook? Cars paid off? House paid for? Lots of money for retirement? Never sweat a payment? You’ve been in control, so how is that going?
Isn’t the truth obvious that you not only need to transfer ownership but you need to release control? If your control over your money has brought you to the place you are now, don’t you think that it would be wise to release the control to God? He’s been in control the whole time and the quicker we let go of what we think we are controlling the faster we find ourselves free financially. God controls everything, so isn’t it time to give it up?
We said that God owns everything, controls everything but there is one more basic we must understand and that is that God provides everything. (I Chron. 29:12). David said, "Wealth and honor come from you alone…Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength." What is David saying? He is saying that God provides everything. All wealth, honor, power, might, greatness and strength are at God’s discretion. That means God is the source of all we have, whether it is something we can see or only something we can feel. The provision of our lives, whether great or small, is totally and completely at God’s discretion. God gives different things to different people as he chooses because God provides everything.
Jesus said the same thing except he narrowed it down to saying that God can be trusted to meet our most basic and essential needs. He said, "And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't he more surely care for you? You have so little faith! So don't worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern." (Matt. 6:31-33) The challenge is either Jesus meant what he said or he didn’t. I personally believe that he was speaking the truth when he said that God will provide for me what I need and I need to accept what he provides.
We really don’t believe that God can be trusted to provide what we need. So we worry, sweat, get mad, jealous and on and on it goes, all because we just don’t understand the basic principle that God provides everything. Our frustration and source of discontent is that we just don’t like what or how God has provided for us. We don’t like the house, car, clothes, job, school, phone, ipod or whatever that we have so we try to position ourselves to have more and more. We forget as an old Bob Dylan song says, "That the same things I will want today I will want again tomorrow." ("Boots of Spanish Leather") The chief reason we’re in the financial mess we are in is because we refuse to accept that God provides everything and the faster we accept what’s provided then the path to freedom will be ours.
So where are you today? Are you stuck in a financial mess where you never in your life thought you would be? There are so many here today that live with the regret of what might have been if they had only understood these basic principles. There are so many of you who are just starting out who need to understand these basics in order for you to be saved from a lifetime of financial regret.
Let’s say the basics again:
Now, since God owns it all, don’t you need to give what’s his back? Since God controls it all, don’t you need to let go of what you think you control? Since God provides it all, don’t you need to start saying, "Thank you"? If you want to get on the path to freedom financially, then understand the basics. Remember every time you say, "It’s mine," God is grieved and Satan, well, he just laughs.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor
First Baptist Church
Jonesboro, Arkansas