"Financial Freedom--Freedom From Worry"
Pastor Larry Fryling
Christ's Community Church
Hey, you've hung in there! The last couple of weeks we've been talking
about money, the plague of the church when it ever brings up the subject.
So we've been talking the last couple of weeks, and this morning we're
going to pick up the next object and that is how you and I can deal with
money by being free from worry. It's been my experience having dealt with
money for basically most of my life, from the time I collected pennies
all the way up until today, where I'm all the way up to quarters, and that
one of the things that goes with the idea of money often times is a certain
tension or anxiety. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands, but I'm
sure there are at least one or two of us that have sat down with our checkbook
and said, "how are we going to do it? Here we are, we're getting close
to the end of the month and the money has run out and we've got these bills
and how are we going to pay them?" Or, we talk about the idea of having
mega-bucks in the bank so when your kids go to college, you can pay for
it or your retirement. Is social security going to be there? You know what's
going to happen then or are you and I going to keep working until we're
85 years old. There's a lot of tension that comes with the subject of money.
Go back to the idea that often times in marriage problems the number one
cause of problems is the issues of money. We don't have enough coming in.
Why can't you provide? What do you mean, you just got laid off? There's
all this anxiety about having enough money. Well now, one of the first
things I want to say this morning is that the tension that we have in our
lives, is our choice. It was our decision.
Let me give you an example. Let's say Elly does something this week
that I didn't like and I go to Elly and I say, "you make me angry". "You
make me angry!" We've learned, I hope, over the period of time that Elly
can make no one angry. Right? I choose to be angry. She did something and
I now choose to be angry at her. She does not have control over my emotions.
That's my responsibility. She did something, I choose the anger emotion.
Anxiety is the exact same thing. There are things that happen to us in
our lives and how we choose to deal with them. There are people that face
a situation in a crisis and they deal with it with a tremendous grace,
a confidence, a faith in God, He's going to do it and other people come
apart. It's a decision that we make. So that as you and I talk about the
issue of money and worry and anxiety and tension, one of the things that
we have to be aware of is that's the choice we've made to deal with this
issue. Of course, money may be tight. Of course money may not be there.
Of course we may have to make tough financial decisions, but anxiety is
one choice we make and there are several other choices.
So this morning one of the things we're going to be looking at is the
other choices that we can make other than worry. The other issue we have
to deal with is often times when we're dealing with money, we're not necessarily
dealing with worry, but we have to go one step further down and what we're
actually dealing with is FEAR. We're dealing with fear. There are a number
of things that we can be afraid about when it comes to money and possessions.
Number 1 can be, what if I have to live without things? What if I get to
the point and I lose everything that I have? If you want to see people
that have a certain level of fear, maybe subtle, are people that have gone
through the Depression. I remember going through several people's garages
that were just packed full of stuff and I said, "Why do you keep all of
this stuff?" They would trace it back and say, "We went through the Depression
where we had nothing. Yeah, we had a car, it was on blocks in the back
yard because we couldn't afford the gas to drive it. We had a telephone,
the kids played with it because we didn't have the money to hook it up.
We didn't have anything, so anything that we get now, we're going to hang
on to it". For some of us the fear of living without maybe goes back to
a childhood in which we grew up in poverty. Right now there's a certain
fear that's driving us. "I've got to accumulate and hang on to as much
as I can".
The second area that may cause fear is fear of failure. Sometimes that
drives us. "I've got to be careful about money. I've got to hang on to
it and I've got to accumulate and I've got to worry about it because what
if things start to unravel. What if my company downsizes and I'm one of
the people they downsized? What if I get to a point in my life where I
can no longer maintain this pace and suddenly I'm not good enough any more?"
What if I face some sort of failure in my life and that fear keeps motivating
and driving us because what if, while things are going well right now,
things start to unravel and when they unravel what if?? And that creates
the fear in the present.
Number 3: the opposite of failure is fear of success. Sometimes that
drives us. Sometimes things are going so well that we know we have to go
the next step now. Maybe the company is at a certain size and we need to
go the next round. The next round is greater commitment and more time
and we're afraid of what it's going to do to us, to our emotions, to our
family, to our relationships and that fear begins to grip us. But what
if I don't move ahead? What if I stay where I am? Then will I be a failure?
A lot of emotions go through our minds.
The fourth area that we often fear is not keeping up with others. What
happens when your next door neighbor, who's your best friend, suddenly
pulls up in that great big brand new luxury car? Suddenly you feel like,
boy, he's getting ahead and sometimes you look at other people and they
have things that are a lot nicer than yours. Their house is nicer, their
cars are nicer, they dress better, they do all kinds of things, they go
to better places, they go on vacation. There's this fear, what will
people think about me because I'm not keeping up? There's a lot of fear
that grips us. So when I put this series together last July, I picked a passage that's the easiest one in the whole Bible to talk
about anxiety and let me tell you this morning, I couldn't make it work
this week.
Let me show you what I mean. I'd like you to turn in your Bibles to
Matthew 6. This is a section in the Bible that we call the Sermon of the
Mount. It's part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and when you get there turn
over to verse 25. If you're using the Bibles in the pews, you'll see that
the section says, "Do not worry". That's the summary of it. The problem
is--and that by the way is a very accurate summary--I couldn't get this
to work because do you know what? It's like going through a really tough
time where you're falling apart and becoming unglued, and somebody puts
their arm around you and says, "Don't worry about it". You want to go,
"Right, don't worry about it! If you were in my situation, you'd be worrying
about it right now. It's easy for you to say, don't worry about it!" As
I was going through this passage, and Jesus is saying, "Don't worry about
it", and I'm going, there's something missing here because it doesn't work.
I stood there all week, talk about worry! My anxiety level was beginning
to go up because I had to stand in front of you and talk about this passage,
and I don't know what I'm going to talk about until I tripped up one word.
Then it all fell into place and I'll explain that word to you in a moment
and see how it all comes together.
You're in Matthew 6:25, go back up to verse 19 and that section is called
"Treasures in Heaven" and let's read there as sort of a beginning to get
us into verse 25. Matthew 6:19
"Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust
destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves
treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves
do not break in and steal for where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your
whole body will be full of light. If your eyes are bad, your body will
be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great
is that darkness. No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the
one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not
worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about what your body,
what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more
important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or
reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are
you not yet much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add
a single hour to his life? Why do you worry about clothes? See how the
lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin, yet I tell you that
not even Solomon, in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today
and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you,
of yea of little faith? So do not worry saying, what shall we eat or what
shall we drink or what shall we wear. For the pagans run after these things
and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His Kingdom
and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Now what's interesting in this passage is what Jesus is doing is He
is telling us that for you and me in our lives there are certain things
that need to be present. What I did was sort of in the view of Consumer's
Reports. Yesterday I got my new Consumer's Reports and they're doing sports
utility vehicles. I always read up about all the cars and I took that and I put it together with this and we're going to look at
3 characteristics. The 1st is durability. Does it last? The 2nd is the
view. If you read Consumer Reports, it's "Can you see out of this vehicle
or are the pillars from the roof in the way?" The 3rd is what's the level
of power? So what Jesus is doing now, He's setting us up to teach us how
not to worry.
Let's go to step 1. In verses 19-21, Jesus is talking about will it
last. Is it durable? There are certain things that you and I have in our
lives that are not very durable. For example, Kleenex. That's not something
that you use again and again. You use it and you throw it away. On the
other hand, there are other things that we buy that are far more durable.
If I bought a brand new shirt, my expectation is that I'm going to wear
it more than once, not wear it once and throw it away like a Kleenex. But
I want it to be a durable item. What Jesus is saying in the first part
is you're going to invest in something, if your going to invest your life
in something, make sure it's going to last. In that regard, He gives us
two choices. Choice #1 is to put your fortune here and now. In His words
He says, "treasures on earth". To put your fortune here and now. In order
to explain what it is, I'm going to first explain what it is not. Jesus
is NOT talking about #1 our possessions in themselves. He's not just talking
about possessions. #2 He's NOT talking about saving money. The Bible is
very clear that there is the expectation that you and I should save. That
phrase, go to the ant, look at what the ant does. The ant puts things away
for the winter. You should be saving. The 3rd thing He's NOT talking about
not enjoying what you have. All good gifts from the Father, we're to use
them and enjoy them. What Jesus is talking about here in putting your treasures
on earth, or putting the fortune on the here and now, is selfish ambition.
I am here to make sure that I get my stuff! Materialism. The bumper sticker
says, "The one who dies with the most toys wins". The idea that my significance
in this world, that my purpose in this world is found in the things that
I possess. What do people think about me when I drive down the road in
my new sports car? What do you think about me when I wear my new suit?
What do people looking at me see as being successful? You see, this is
about me. It's the idea of being extravagant. It's the idea of getting
the biggest and the best, the life styles of the rich and famous. It's
the idea of I want more. Jesus is saying, that's your choice. The problem
is the durability of this is very poor. He says the problem is you put
a lot of effort into this and what happens to it? Someone steals it, it
starts to rust, it begins to fade, it breaks down. All that effort that
you put into that brand new car, eventually you trade it away. He said
the durability level is poor and even if you manage to hang on to something,
the counter bumper sticker says, "The one who dies with the most toys still
dies". That's true. I accumulated it all and I leave it behind for my kids
to fight over. He says, you can put your treasure there, you can put the
emphasis of your life there. This is what's going to give me meaning, but
it's not going to be around forever. It's going to be here and gone.
The other choice, choice #2, is what I call the now and later and what
Jesus term is "you put your treasure in heaven". In other words, what He's
saying is that your going to invest in something that's not only going
to be something here, but it's also going to be something on the other
side when you finally get to heaven. What are those things? How do we invest
in the Lord's savings and loan? How do we put all our treasures over there?
What Jesus begins to say is you've got to invest in the things that are
going to be there. One of the things that we invest in is a Christ-like
character. Who we are is ultimately going to be that individual in heaven.
That Christ-like character that begins to develop here is going to continue
over there. That increased faith, the increased hope, the increased love
that should be present in our life is something that is going to make a
significant difference, not only for us but for other people here because
one of the things that we can invest in are the people around us.
Remember the parable that Jesus told of the shrewd manager. The point
of that was He says I want you to take your money and invest it in people
so that when you stand before God, in effect, they're going to be standing
there next to you.
This morning I read the newspaper and in The Family Circus it says,
"A century from today, these won't mean a thing. The house we lived in,
the money we made, the clothes we wore, the kind of car we drove, but the
world will be a better place because our children were loved". As you look
at that you say, that's true. The significant thing will be that we've
invested our lives in our children. When Jesus looks at the investments
that we make, He says one of the things that you can take to heaven by
the grace of God are your kids, your next door neighbors, your family members.
What Jesus is talking about is that the time and effort that we have in
the world, let's put it into something durable and that's lives. How are
you going to influence other people's lives? By loving them, by caring for them, by sharing Jesus Christ with them. That's the thing so that when
the last day you stand before the great throne of God, you've got your
kids, you've got your family, you've got your neighbors and they're all
there because by God's grace, God used you to touch them. Meanwhile, the
house, the cars, the clothes and everything else are going to be long gone.
But those lives are going to be there. It's investing in Christian causes.
In the bulletin this morning, an organization in our denomination says,
"Hurricane Fran came in and in the name of Jesus Christ we're going to
help the uninsured. We're going to help the poor. We're going to help the
elderly and we're going to show the love of Jesus Christ to people like
that". Those are things we invest in. Jesus says, here's the choice. The
choice is things that are not durable, they're not going to last or things
that will last forever. What are you going to put your time and energy
into? Pick one. That's step one, durability.
Step #2 is the view. This is in verses 22 & 23. Let me illustrate that.
Jesus here talks about two choices. Choice #1 is bad eyes. What I did this
morning was I brought my other pair of glasses. It's dark in here. You
see, what I'm seeing is filtered through the lenses that I have in front
of me. A moment ago I stood with regular glasses and you all looked crisp
and clear. I took my glasses off, suddenly you all go blurry. I put my
sunglasses on, which are prescription glasses and suddenly you are all
clear but you're real dark. What I'm doing is what I am seeing is filtered
through the lenses that I have in front of me. When Jesus talks about first
of all this idea of eyes, He says your first step are the bad eyes. He
talked about dark eyes. That's why the sunglasses this morning. What my
perspective is determines how I see my world. Bad eyes look at the world
and say, "What's in it for me? I am here to serve myself". I one time met
a man who said when it came down to voting, I just vote with the idea of
what's this candidate going to do for me? It didn't matter what was right
or wrong or anything else. It's what's in it for me. Jesus says you and I
can go through the world with this perspective, for this view of being
in self-service and we're walking around saying, "Let's see now, what are
my goals? What are my plans? What's in it for me?" What's interesting is
right after Adam and Eve fell into sin, this whole perspective came into
play of me, myself and I. I love the illustration of the word 'sInce' It's
about I. So as I go through the world now, the perspective is does this
benefit me? I go to church. What do I get out of the church? I go to work.
What is this job doing for me? I look at my next door neighbor. What's
he done for me recently? Jesus says that one perspective you can go on
through life. Self service. On the other hand, Jesus says, you've got to
have good eyes. The perspective, the lenses that you put in front of you
make a difference. Suddenly this whole room lightened up because I changed
the lenses. I changed the perspective and what He's talking about here
on choice #2 is good eyes or if you want to drop the 'o' out of it, you
could just make it God's eyes. What is God's perspective on this world?
What's God's perspective of Charles sitting over here? What does God think
about Charles and what God thinks about Charles is what I should think
about Charles? If I put my sunglasses on, I can come back and say, "So,
what has Charles done for me recently?" Or, I can look at him with God's perspective
and say, "How can I bless him?" Not only Charles, but I can start looking
at the rest of the church. I can look at my next door neighbor, I can look
at my co-workers, I can look at those annoying people in my family and
I can say, "I'm here to do God's thing and God's thing is to love them".
You want to know the heart of God, go to Luke 15. God is concerned about
people who don't know Him. Luke 15 is God is concerned about people who
don't know Him. Question. Is that my primary concern also? Or am I busy
wearing the sunglasses?
God is interested in investing in people. He was sent to die on the
cross for people and I'm trying to get rich. It's perspective, it's the
view. So He says, you've got to put God's eyes in. You've got to see the
world from God's perspective. You've got to commit yourself to a cause
greater than yourself. The natural tendency, it's for me! God's says the
world. Me! The world. Which one's going to win, which choice? You've got
to choose again, bad eyes or good eyes. That's the second choice Jesus
gives, durability.
The present or the future, bad eyes or good eyes.
Third choice Jesus says is an issue of power. Verse 24 He says you've
got to choose. What's interesting is He says you have to choose. Choice
#1 is money. Choice #2 is God. But I want to impress on you is that money
is not something that's neutral. Money has influence. Money has power.
Look at all the debate about politics right now and political action committees
and donations from various donors. If I give a candidate a large sum of
money, will that influence that candidate's vote? We ask the questions
because money has power. In the early church, James has to say to the people,
quit favoring the rich when it comes to bringing them into church and giving
them the best seats and telling the poor people to go sit in the front
yard somewhere. Just by looking at people we understand money has power
and that power has an influence in our lives. What Jesus says is your first
choice is money. You can put your emphasis on it, you can put your energy
toward it. That can be your perspective, but that's going to end up being
the thing that you serve. If your goal is to get rich and be wealthy
and to have all the meaning in life out of that, you don't have time for
me. You've got to choose what is the big priority of your heart. If it's
to accumulate all this stuff, then I'm out of here, not because I'm leaving
but because you have chosen the other way. So God's perspective now is
to say OK, you've got to pick one. That's a tough one because where are
our thoughts? Where's the time? Where's the energy spent? One of the things
that I've noticed in me and I'm noticing in you is that all of us are so
busy. Do you have that feeling? It's like you have to carry the calendar
with you everywhere, every nights filled and I say to people, "How about
if we meet here". "Well, I'm busy you know. I'm booked solid until the
second coming of Christ, then I have some free time after that". I look
at that and I look at my life and I'm going, "I'm busy doing what" because
the time will tell me what my God is, where I'm spending the time and where
I'm spending the energy. I'm afraid that sometimes in our lives we get
things out of kilter, out of priority.
Second choice. You choose money or you choose God. A minute ago I told
you that I had a hard time with this passage. I'm going to show you the key now of how to get to the point of non-worry
because Jesus sets this up in a unique way. Let me give you an illustration.
On our vacation this year as a family, we camped all the way up to Seattle,
WA. We went up into Northern Seattle and went to the Boeing factory. I
never saw them make airplanes before. There are enormous buildings, enormous
airplanes and we saw them making the 747. Let's say in that whole process,
I get bit by the bug and I say, "I want to fly one of those things". I
call up United and say I'd like to fly a 747 and they go, yeah, right.
I can imagine myself getting up there in that cockpit in that huge plane,
feeling like I'm hundreds of feet above the ground, looking at those seemingly
thousands of dials and going, "Where do I put the thing to start this thing?"
Where's the gas pedal? They don't let me fly them, obviously. They may
say to me, "You want to fly one of these, we're going to #1, run you through
extensive training. #2, we're going to give you extensive testing to see
how the training held. #3, we'll make you a co-pilot for a number of years
and if you proven yourself, then maybe we'll make you a captain and you
can fly the plane".
Okay. Step #1. I'm going to the extensive training. Step #2, the extensive
testing. Step #3, being a co-pilot and if I fail any one of those steps,
I cannot be the captain of a 747. That's understandable because if I don't
do the training, I'm out. If I don't pass the testing, I'm out. If I don't
want to be a co-pilot, I'm out. Now, if I'm out on one of those causes,
then I cannot be the pilot of the plane. Jesus is setting this story, these
teachings, up in the same way. He gives us three steps. Step #1, durability.
You've got a choice. Is it going to be your emphasis in this world or the
next? Pick one. If we pick this world, we're out. We can't get to non-worry.
We're out. The next one is the view. Are you going to go through life with
the bad eyes of self-service or are you going to go through the good eyes
of God's eyes. Which one? I want to pick bad eyes. I want to serve myself.
You're out. You are not in the running for non-worry anymore. The next
step is power. If I'm going to serve money, I'm out of the running for
non-worry because, if you have your Bibles open, you and I cannot start
verse 25 and talk about non-worry because of one word. Verse 25 starts
with the word, "therefore". Therefore means you've got to consider that which
came above because you didn't pass the training, because you didn't pass
the testing, because you were unwilling to be a co-pilot, therefore, you
cannot pilot a 747. Because you chose wrong on one of the choices Jesus
says, you can't get to non-worry. However, if you choose correctly on choice
1, choice 2, choice 3, you're now a candidate to move to the area of freedom
from the fear and anxiety in relationship to money and possessions. Why?
Because these aren't the focus of my life anymore. If my focus is on money
and I lose it, all my security leaves. But if it doesn't matter, my focus
is on service to God and if my money's gone, so what. It's going to remove
the anxiety. Something's only going to have the grip on my life according
to the value that I place within it. If I look at my possessions and I
look at my money and give it low value, it's presence or its absence is
going to create what the apostle Paul said: "I have learned whenever I
have plenty and when I have nothing to be content" because I haven't put
a value on the money or the possessions. So the "therefore", we have to back
to those 3 steps, and now we move to the non-worry.
Just like Consumer Reports, what's the recommendation? If the right
choices are made, therefore? He says, don't worry. Then to enforce that,
He says let me give you 3 reasons why. #1 - God created and sustains life
(vs. 26). If God made you and by God continually keeping your world together
and His hand is on you, and if you don't believe that, He says, look at
the sparrows. God's taking care of them and they're so insignificant compared
to you. If God's taking care of them, do you think He's going to take care
of you? God created you and sustained you so don't worry about all this
stuff. God's there. He's involved in your life.
#2 - worry is unproductive. Verse 27 - "What will it accomplish in your
life. Can you become taller by worrying?" The only thing we can create
are ulcers. He says it's simply an unproductive act.
#3 - it's unnecessary. The Father knows what you need. The Father's
involved in your life. God knows what you need today, what you need tomorrow.
Here you are, you're worrying about all this stuff that God is going to
take care of, so why do it. Then He comes to this conclusion. Again, the
best choice is, seek the Kingdom of God. I've been giving you choices all
the way along, now the summary is seek the Kingdom of God. What does that
look like? The first thing is Jesus rule in my life. That's the Kingdom
of God. The idea of a King being over a Kingdom, He means He's the one
in charge. When I say, God, I want to seek your Kingdom. Jesus is now the
King. He's the authority. He's the leader. He's the boss. And this is my
life and I give it to Him and say, okay, you rule my life. My next door
neighbor, I'm really annoyed with them, what do you want me to do to love
them? What do you want me to do? What's the priority? Jesus, you rule my
life and that means I've got to be involved in the Bible and I've got to
understand what it means to live this kind of life under Jesus authority.
I've been under my own management for a long time. What does it mean? The
second thing it means is let your Kingdom come in the lives of others.
My children, let your Kingdom be established there. Let them give their
hearts to you. My next door neighbors, my family members, my co-workers.
Jesus spread the Kingdom out. Rule in their lives. Translation, make them
obedient followers of you. Finally, let the Kingdom of God come in our
nation and the world. It's the righteousness of God. God constrains evil.
Constrain that which was working against you and your Kingdom and suddenly
what's right becomes more important of what's expedient at the moment.
As we look at our society, we as individual Christians and we as a church
need to talk about the righteousness of God, the banality, the idea that
there are certain things that are right and wrong, not just things that
are convenient. God, I want your Kingdom to come in our nation. I want it
to come in Iran. I want it to come around the world.
When we do that, suddenly all the worry about our finances and our possessions
and all the other things that we care about, it gets pushed way down the
list. All that stuff that I have is insignificant because my priorities
have now shifted to over here and shifting them over here means I'm concerned
what God's concerned about. Does He have full rein of my life? Does He
have full rein of my neighbor's life? Is God's Kingdom present in the nation?
Because my priorities have shifted, my time commitment has shifted also.
I'm spending more time here rather than the accumulation of the stuff over
there.
We have choices to make. The question is, where's our heart? Is it there
in the world or is it there with the Kingdom of God? How can I tell? It's
easy. What do you worry about? Let's pray together.
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