WOW!

Happy ThanksLiving: Wow! 1 Timothy 6.2b-19 9/17/06
Allen R. Hunt Mount Pisgah (With thanks to Alcorn, Coy, Stanley, and Warren)
I. Wow!: An exclamation of wonder, surprise, pleasure or pain
Somewhere along the way – I said Wow – that is exactly what happened – my eyes bulged out, my jaw fell slack, and I said Wow!
When I came across a sermon by Bob Coy who shared these figures
Reduce world’s population to 100 – 30 know Jesus Christ, 70 do not
51 women, 49 men
80 – live in substandard housing – no running water, electricity, solid roof over head
50 malnourished – may have a meal but not adequate to sustain health
70 – cannot read at all

Here is where it gets interesting – 6 have over half of all world’s wealth
Those 6 live in the USA
6 out of 100 people on earth have over half of all world’s wealth – worth writing down
6 % have 1/2 of the world’s wealth

So it seems reasonable to ask – what are we doing with it?
Imagine a large dollar bill In America, you and I spend
24 % for Housing – mortgage, lawn mower, chlorine, dues
19 % for Health Care – insurance, doctors, cough drops, aspirin
22 % for Recreation/Personal/Pleasure – stuff you enjoy and feel are important to do
15 % for Stomach
17 % for Ride – car, insurance, gas
So what do we have left – to invest in God’s mission, to lead people to Jesus, to feed children, to provide clean water, to build churches?
That is the question and it is sad – because going to have to tell the rest of the world, we’d like to help but really not sure what to do about it
On one hand, if I am a heathen American, don’t know God, I will give between 2 and 2.6% to something that might help somebody else
If I am a believer, I will give about 3% - but if I am a United Methodist believer, I will give 2% - less than a heathen

And I am thinking that the 80 people who live in substandard housing might need a little more help than that – but we have already obligated all the spots on our dollar
And worse than you think – lot of Christians have hard time giving 2 or 3% because our dollar is not enough
Every $100 we made last year, we spent $101.50 – first time since Depression in 1929 that Americans had a negative saving rate
Average American carrying $9200 in consumer debt on total of 7 credit cards
And it is true for most of us in this room – we feel pressure, we argue about money, we are stressed about it – we want more – and in this series you will hear from some folks right here in this room who will say that
We live in the wealthiest 10 mile radius in the country – Old Milton and 400 – and yet we are stressed out – we feel like we do not have enough
If we cannot figure it out – when we are among the wealthiest 2% of people in the world, something is dreadfully wrong
If you make $50,000, that is where you are – 98% of the world looks at you and says, “You make how much? I only dream of that. What do you do with it all? Give it away?”
And yet for us Americans it still is not enough
John Wesley said, “Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can”
America says, “Earn all you can, borrow all you can, spend all you can”

So I have to tell you when I came across these figures – first, it depressed me
Then it saddened me – that Christians’ lives look like rest of world
And third that I had done so little about it as a pastor
1 Tim. 6:2b – These are the things you are to teach and urge on them…
So I shared this with you last spring – and told you I would share a sermon series this Fall
Not to ask you for anything – but simply to teach you what Word of God says
Because these figures just do not match up with Jesus

II. Wow! The Jesus Perspective: Most of His Teaching
More than half – nearly 2/3 of Jesus’ teaching – around issue of money
Jesus never asked anyone for money – not once – but He spent an enormous amount of time talking about it – more than He talked about heaven, more than He talked about hell, more than He talked about salvation, more than He talked about prayer – more than all those combined – more than all other subjects combined
And here’s why
A) Your heart follows your money
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Mt. 6.21)
Simple truth – it just is
Direct link between your heart and your money – your heart follows your money
Buy a stock – soon you will be sneaking into the computer to room to check and monitor
Your heart is attached to that stock now – it follows your money
Have old carpet, no big deal when somebody spills the cheese dip on it, but once that new carpet is purchased, everyone has to take shoes off, take no food in den – heart attached to that carpet now – heart follows your money
Jesus is pretty clear – greatest competition God faces for your heart is not Satan – it is your money – stunning news
But that is why Jesus talks so much about it – heart and money are linked
6.10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs
That is why I am doing this series – plain and simple

Way to tell if this series is for you
If you spend more than you make, it is for you
If you don’t know if you spend more than you make, for you
If you don’t care if spend more than you make, for you
If paying minimum on credit card, this series is for you
If your family makes $50,000 or more and just cannot seem to get by, for you
If feel financial pressure and stress, for you – because stress is artificial not real, you are doing it to yourself
If you are making financial decisions that you hope your spouse will not discover, this is really for you

So let me start very plainly
B) Jesus does not want your money; He desires to capture your heart
No servant 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. (Luke 16.13)
You CANNOT be a fully devoted follower of Jesus and be financially strapped, pressurized, upside down – impossible – because you have two masters
To be worrying and stressed over money – leads you away from God
Your heart is linked to your money
And Jesus wants your heart – but His greatest competition for your heart is your money
Because when you are in debt, when you are stressed, borrowing, spending more than you make – you feel owned, you feel confused, you feel desperate, and you feel enslaved
Proverbs 22.7 The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender
When you are pursuing financial goals first in your life – you are in danger
6.9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
6.17 – Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God.

C) This is a spiritual issue
A lot of folks get uncomfortable – think money and God are like Church and State
“Preacher, stay out of my pocketbook”
My faith is my faith – and my money is my money – two different issues
But Jesus is pretty clear isn’t He? This is a deeply spiritual issue
Single greatest obstacle between you and God is money
So we had better be talking about it in Church
Either your hope is in God or your hope is in money – cannot serve both

D) Because God owns it all
Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord,
And this is your kingdom.
We adore you as the one who is over all things.
Riches and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything.
Power and might are in your hand,
And it is at your discretion that people are made great and given strength.
(1 Chron, 29.11b-12 NLT)
Hear this – what you have is not yours – it is God’s
He has entrusted it to you – we are the managers of the assets God has entrusted, not given, to us
When Mr. Rockefeller died, someone asked his accountant, “How much did he leave behind?” Answer: “He left all of it.”

E) Wow! God wants FOR me, not FROM me
So here is when we get to the good news
God has great things in store for you – He desires your heart
And when you invite Him to saturate your life – to fill your heart with the Holy Spirit
He wants to invade your whole life
And where He sees pressure, and stress, and anxiety, and discord – He wants to bring something vastly different
God wants you to be able to say at least three things
- I want to experience the grace of God and His incredible provision
It is my prayer that in this series some of you will discover for the first time, a remarkable experience of God providing where you never would have imagined financially
Job, business, giving – because God is faithful – and it all belongs to Him
For example, in every capital campaign I have ever been a part of, I pray
And I ask God for the amount to give – don’t ask Him where it will come from
Don’t ask how it will occur – just the figure
Three campaigns in a row – the number has floored me – and in each instance, within two weeks, something happened in our lives where that figure became a reality
Because God is faithful and He wants to provide
But He cannot bless bad behavior – where we are spending on ourselves, spending more than we make, having more than the world and still demanding more

- I want to experience the joy of living the way God intends me to live
God has no desire to see you stressed out, pressurized, or financially strapped
Has no desire to see you be a slave to debt – to have a heart that wanders from Him
God desires to see you free – free to serve and love Him without feeling entangled by money and stuff
God desires to see you be financially secure and stable - able to save – to have a reserve – to be able to give generously to the missions you desire to – to be at peace
My hope is that this series will help you discover that for your own life

- I want to experience contentment rather than pressure and stress
I know what it is 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. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. (Phlp. 4.12-13)
Wouldn’t you love to be able to say that? Bible teaches us how to be content
You really can trust this Book
Wouldn’t you love to be content?
By the time you are 20, you will have seen 1MM ads, wouldn’t it be nice to be unfazed by all of them? To not be one of the Americans who averages 6 hours a week shopping and just 40 minutes playing with their children? Content
To avoid the 90% of divorce cases where arguments over money play a prominent role?
Wouldn’t you love to be able to give thanks for your neighbor who buys a new car rather than start figuring out how you can match or surpass him?
Wouldn’t you love to be able to go to the mall and be content rather than discovering all the things that you never knew you needed and then feel compelled to buy them?
Contentment

That is why we are doing this series – a very spiritual series

Will receive a gift each week – this week a powerful book for each family
Alcorn’s The Treasure Principle
Covenant with me to read it – discuss it – pray over it – has the capacity to change your life