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Commercials: Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun!
(Series 2 of 4)
Pastor Kris Vos
Last week we talked about how the foundation for change lies in developing
your character!
Identity
Self-Discipline
Core Values
So here's what I think: The best thing you can do right now is to finish what
you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. Your
heart's been in the right place all along. You’ve got what it takes to finish
it up, so go to it. Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can,
not what you can't. The heart regulates the hands. 2 Corinthians 8:10
(The Message)
Once the commitment is clear! What we want to do today is get that commitment
clear. We make our decisions out of deeply held convictions. Unfortunately, we
often let those deeply held convictions just wander into our lives without any
filters.
For example:
Many of us in our culture have a deeply held conviction that how someone
looks is more important than how they act. We wonder why our relationships don’t
work out. We wonder why we experience so much pain in our relational life and
sometimes in our family life. We have sold out to the very popular notion that
beauty is more important than values.
We don’t want to end up like everyone else, so we try something
different. Some of you are trying church simply because it is something
different but you are not changing your deeply held beliefs.
Unless we dig deep enough to change those deeply held beliefs nothing will
significantly change in our lives.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind. –Romans 12:1
If I were to ask you what were your deeply held decisions about money.
That is different than what are your decisions about money. All I have to do
is open your checkbook or your bank statement.
We want to dig deeper down to the bedrock of what your really believe about
your financial decisions.
3 Tests to Change Your Deeply Held Beliefs.
It is my prayer this morning that you will be transformed by the renewal of
your mind!
Ownership test –
Andy Stanley helped me understand ownership. Did you have your own room when
you were growing up?
Did you put a sign on it saying KRIS’ ROOM
Did you every hang a sign on the door that said: DO NOT ENTER!
Maybe you added – No girls allowed, absolutely no one allowed.
Maybe you added – Do not enter under penalty of death!
Maybe you put a lock on your door because it was YOUR room.
I shared a room with my two brothers it had just enough room to sleep so we
really didn’t spend much time in there. I was so desperate to have my own
space that I claimed the little closet in our room that was about 6 foot long. I
was so happy that I had my own room!
Why is it that when it was my room that if my mom said clean up your room
that I did it? Why was it that when mom said, “You’re moving to the
downstairs bedroom.” That we ultimately pick up our stuff and we move.
Why is it that mom wouldn’t let me paint my room in black and white swirls
that would have looked totally groovy under the black light?
Why? Because it is not my room at all! I simply manage my room.
Lake County reminds me on a regular basis that it is not my land. I just pay
them to manage their land!
Folks, the sooner we understand that God Owns It All, the sooner we will
begin to transform our financial decisions. If we can push that down into one of
our deeply held beliefs it will transform the way we think about finances!
PSALM 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it!”
Passing the Ownership Test will help you to be free of Guilt about your
money.
Have you ever heard of a financial manager feeling guilty about the money
that he manages? Of course not: Because it is not his!
If you have someone who manages your investments for you he doesn’t say
to you, “Man I am so glad you chose to invest your money using my services
because my wife really needs a new car!”
NO! Because it is not his money. He doesn’t feel guilty, He feels
RESPONSIBLE!
Some of you are saying I’ll take the guilt! Spare me the responsibility!
1 Chronicles 29:2 – He said, “Guys, I want you to know I raised the
money, and I’m giving so that we can buy gold for the goldsmith and silver
for the silversmith.”
• Verse 3 – He said, “I have already reached into my
big pile of gold and silver that I have as king. Now I’m going over into my
personal assets. This is my retirement account. I’m going to give
extraordinarily generously to this temple because this is a big deal.”
• Verse 5 – Who wants to join me?
• Verse 6 – All these people began to give generously.
David was so excited about this.
• Verse 10 & 11 – Everything in Heaven and earth is
Yours.
• Verse 12 – Anything I have in terms of wealth and honor
come from You. You own it all and You distribute it as You see fit.
• Verse 13 & 14 – None of us should be surprised. We’re
simply conduits, managers. You could have chosen anybody, but to think that we
get to give in a substantial way to something as wonderful as Your temple!
Contentment Test:
Clip of Double Mint Gum Advertisement
I miss the 80’s! Doesn’t that just take you back?
University of Michigan survey: What would increase your quality of life?
#1 Answer was more money. Same answer from $200,000 income to those who
made $20,000!
Great minds devoted to convincing us that we are not content. Who is more
content? Man with a million or man with 12 children. Joke the man with 12 kids
cause he doesn’t want any more!
Book: Your Money or Your Life. Certain level of satisfaction
that money can bring. Our accumulation of things meets initial level of
satisfaction but the more stuff we have the more our satisfaction level drops.
When fulfillment of things and accumulation meets it is called enough!
Agur from Proverbs knew this. I’m guessing his friends called him Augie…
Lord don’t give me too much, don’t give me too little. All I need is enough.
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches, but
give me only my daily bread. [sound familiar – give us this day…daily
bread]
9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may
become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
Proverbs 30
Trust Test:
Take out what represents your financial life.
Wallet, purse…you can caress it like Frodo…”my precious” Give it to your
neighbor. Just kidding, not in Vegas.
We do a lot to fill this piece of leather up. We
hoard it. We spend it.
Elijah in I Kings 17.. Widow of Zeraphath
12 But she said, “I swear by the Lord your God
that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a
handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the
jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son
and I will die.”
13 But Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid!
Go ahead and cook that ‘last meal,’ but bake me a little loaf of bread
first. Afterward there will still be enough food for you and your son. 14 For
this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be plenty of
flour and oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain
and the crops grow again!”
6 For no matter how much they used, there was
always enough left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through
Elijah.
Are you holding it or is it holding you?
PASS OUT THE CROWN MONEY MAP BROCHURES!
Next Steps
1. Ask God to give us contentment.
We must first be content with what we have if we ever hope to be content with
what we will have!
a. What you have is not the same as what your
neighbor has.
b. That is not fair – God never promises that
He will be fair! He promises to save you, be with you, to provide for you, to
give you eternal life….But he never promises it will be fair.
c. Why do some people seem to have it all?
Because they’ve earned it? We live with that illusion. Those who are honest
know they can lose it all in a New York minute.
2. Decide: What I have is enough.
Go home look at your house. Go out into the parking lot and say: It is enough!
Go home look at your closet of clothing and say: “It is enough!”
a. Look at your spouse…I’m just kidding.
3. Dare to
become just a little bit more generous than you are right now.
Reaching for my wallet…J
4. Stop secrecy!
Start with your kids, your parents, maybe for some of you, your spouse!
a. We need to change our culture. This is an
area where the church can be a force for change.
5. Start a
budget
a. If God Owns it all and you are His steward/His
manager, He is going to come and ask, “Where did you spend my money?”
Can you answer him?
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