Religion & Spirituality
There’s a different slant I want to bring today. We’ve talked about how everything is the Lord’s; He is the owner of it all, and we get to serve as His managers. Then we talked about being ungrateful and discontent with what He has given us so much so that we put ourselves in a prison-type of reality where we cannot give as freely, we cannot be as generous as we would like. We are strapped because we paid no attention to the Biblical principles of managing money. Then last week, we spoke about reordering our priorities in God’s Upside Down Kingdom, flipping the list, if you will. But today I am going to talk about all of your extra money...to which you might be saying, “Pastor Trey – I THINK you have the wrong audience!” ?So – before we launch into the sermon, I’m going to present a case to you that you really DO have extra. This isn’t about making anyone feel guilty. It’s about AWARENESS (like last week!). AND my case will include the fact that what you DO with your extra money is an indication of something you believe – which you may not know you believe, but Jesus in fact talks about there in the Sermon on the Mount.Now the fact that I must present a case regarding the extra you have indicates to me that many, many folks don’t think there IS any extra. They get to the end of the month, and there is less money and more month! And that’s when debt occurs – or when people decided that they can’t be generous with their resources.But if you have been doing your homework these past couple of weeks, you may have found that a lot of our “extra” has been consumed – but not on things that are necessary. For instance, if you are part of the Dutch Mafia (Dutch Bros.), and drive through on a regular basis for your morning coffee – you are spending money that isn’t necessary. But I don’t just want to pick on coffee drinkers. It’s the fast food or eating out crowd as well; and the household that subscribes to the dish package with over 240 channels… Those things are things we consume --- but we don’t need. THEREFORE that money that we spend on those things, that is EXTRA.Turn with me to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12. I want to show you a story that Jesus tells to make a point about the purpose of the extra.