I remember when I was a youth pastor serving at another church and was invited to some people’s house for supper. We had just sat down at the table and the father said to us all, “OK—let’s pray before we eat.” The youngest child immediately, “Why are we going to pray? We NEVER pray before we eat.”
Yes, it was tense in the room!
I remember another particular occasion when I was in a deacon’s home with the entire family present and the five year old little girl asked me, “Perry, do you drink beer?” I thought that was an odd question—but I told her no…and she replied, “My daddy does!” No lie—the dude was sitting right in front of me—if he could have crawled out of the room—he would have!
Yes, it was tense in the room!
We have all been in tense situations. We read things that make us tense. We hear things that make us tense. We are confronted with situations that make us tense…and it is in those moments we must decide what to do with that tension.
It was tense yesterday at NewSpring—very tense. I spoke with my best friend and accountability partner, Clayton King, last night on the phone and he told be, “Dude—any time you talk about people’s money or their sin—it will be tense!”
We talked about money AND sin…because Scripture is clear that if you rob from God to build your own personal kingdom—that’s sin! And I will admit that it got highly uncomfortable in the room on multiple occasions.
(Once again—let me explain—it is not wrong to have nice things—it’s wrong when God is robbed and the poor are neglected so that we can have nice things. God blesses us with nice things…but we should always seek to be a blessing to Him and to others!!!)
I confronted people who use “grace” as an excuse not to tithe by telling them there are plenty of examples of gifts in the New Testament going way beyond the tithe—but none that fall short of it—and that if grace is an excuse to give “less” then all you are doing is manipulating Scripture to fuel selfishness and greed…and it was tense.
I made the statement that the kingdom of darkness isn’t holding the ministry of the church back—greedy Christians are…and it was tense.
I made the statement that it is amazing the number of Christians that trust Jesus with their soul but will not trust Him with their wallet…and it was tense.
I quoted the statistics that the average American gives $649 to the church every year—while spending over $900 per year on dog food and $1,000 on specialty coffee drinks…apparently more people in our country are passionate about worshipping Fido and caffeine than God…money does not like…and it was tense.
And I have discovered something—when tension arrives in ANY area of your life…you can either rebel or repent.
Rebellion is all through Scripture—it is when someone clearly hears what the Lord says and purposefully chooses to go in a different direction. That is ONE way of handling tension…and it always brings about PAIN.
The other choice is repentance...saying, “God, I see what YOUR word says about this…You are right and I have been wrong—help me to change the way I think and act about this.” And this always brings about PROGRESS!
We have a choice—not just when it comes to money—but any area of our lives—to rebel and experience pain or repent and experience progress.
The bottom line question that we are asking in this series…the question that is causing us all to wrestle with tension in a very uncomfortable way is, “Is Jesus LORD of every area of my life—including my finances?” If He isn’t—we can either continue to rebel and remain in financial bondage…or we can repent and begin to climb our way out of it. We have a choice…if you are in bondage…you do not have to remain where you are.
I have done both…and let me just say that the repentance thing works the best!
BUT—let me say this in regards to repenting…in order for this to happen—pride must be swallowed! And men have a much harder time with this that women…most men would rather hit rock bottom than ask for help—and this is stupidity at its best. Men—think about your family—your wife—you kids, there is this thing called college…and ASK for help!!! Our church is offering a FREE Bible study on finances…FREE financial counseling…all you have to do is ASK!!! (E-mail us—money@newspring.cc)
For those that were there yesterday…I hope you enjoyed the message—the next two are going to be off the hook! Our team has put together a presentation this week and next week that you do not want to miss. This Sunday we will be talking about generosity and contentment…and the final week we will be concluding with a sermon subtitled: God, Set My Rear End On Fire! (Yes, I am serious!!!)