For many, money is the most private and personal area of our life. We are willing to proclaim who we voted for, what we ate last night and our favorite entertainment. But my money is my business—stay out! But is it just my business? Are you willing to let Jesus into this bolted-shut room of your life?
Proverbs 6:6-11
Speaker: Kevin Ozolins
good morning my name is not Kevin my name is Kurt and I just wanted to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about Kevin all right so it's been interesting how God is working here in Tuncanic I've we've just seen God continually changing lives and it's been interesting as God has brought up Adam through here and then I was I was a part of the campus before I became a campus pastor here we attended my family attended here three years and then I've been a campus pastor here for two years and then Kevin comes along and then Kevin has been attending his family his wife Sarah and their wonderful children have been attending for two years and in that time we've just had a chance to get to know them and Kevin and Sarah started our Voyagere Ministry and they ran with it and we just got to see God do some great things through that ministry so if you're in kids ministry you probably know who they are but but we just watched their journey as they've been here and I just wanted to let you all know in case you didn't know already that Kevin is our recommended candidate for a sociopaster here in Tuncanic so one of the things that really was like when when when Adam left and I was like oh man you know got a lot to do here God's still doing great things and then and Kevin is here and I'm like Kevin could you preach once a month it's like yes I would love to and that's been sort of the attitude of Kevin and Sarah along it's been whatever God has for us to do we're open and we're willing to do and so that's been exciting along the way I just wanted to let you know that if you don't know them you'll have a chance to get to know them but also there's a little biography out on the welcome center that you can pick up to learn a little more there but I just wanted to introduce them and say if and another thing is that when we so as a candidate we consider a candidate I wanted to let you know that the overseers approve and recommended Kevin and then the Tuncanic leadership team recommends Kevin as a candidate but I want you to know this that in two weeks we're gonna vote and the members decide whether Kevin's gonna be an associate pastor here we take that as alright this is God's God's approval here on whether or not we're going to continue to go in this direction so I don't know I'm saying this before he preaches I don't know if I should do that but regardless I think that's doing some great things here but it is up to the members of the church to vote and if that passes then Kevin will will come on here so I wanted to let you know that and if you are unsure or you're not a member please visit the welcome center and if you're interested or you just don't know and you can find out that for sure so I'll let Kevin take it away now all right thanks Kurt so in case you missed what Kurt was saying what he's saying is members this is your smoky the bear kind of moment only you can prevent forest fires aka me coming on staff at the church so if you're not a member yet this is a great reason to become a member but we are just so grateful to have been part of Bridgewater for the last two years and get to see how God is moving that we get to celebrate salvation almost on a weekly basis if not more than one every week to see baptisms and that's not normal for churches most churches in America are under a hundred and attendance and declining that's not happening at Bridgewater and that's why it's so cool for us to be a part of God doing something amazing just such a joy and honor for us to be a small part of that and we're gonna continue this morning in our series called stay out and we're gonna talk about some more stuff that's totally not normal for our culture okay so this series is based on this picture that Jesus paints for us in Revelation chapter 3 verses 20 and 21 he says behold I stand at the door and knock and Jesus is knocking on each one of our hearts and each one of our lives and asking you to invite him in he's waiting he's ready for you to open the door but some of us we hear that knocking on the door and instead of what we would do 50 years ago when somebody knocks on the door like hey somebody's at the door go get some tea on let's get some snacks out we're gonna invite them in we do what we do today when the door bell rings or there's a knock at the door right we look were you expecting somebody why is somebody at our house we look at the cameras to check out and figure out who it is we're like who is who would dare show up at our house and that's some of our attitudes when Jesus is knocking out the door of our hearts we're like whoop nobody's home close the curtains were hitting the floor and that's how some of us want to react when Jesus comes in and says hey I'm here are you gonna let me in some of you have already said yes to Jesus you've said yes I'm gonna let you be the leader and forgiver of my life and you let him into the house and some of you are just like you know what Jesus maybe I'll come meet you out on the front porch we can talk there because my life is a mess and I don't want you in any of that but this series is all about stopping ourselves from telling Jesus stay out of my life stay out as Pastor Kurt talked about last week stay out of my living room I don't want you telling me how to choose my entertainment choices next week Pastor Josh is gonna be talking about God just stay out of my kitchen I don't want you telling me how to live my life with food this week we're gonna be talking about what is possibly the most intimate subject and one of the most challenging subjects for us to talk about and I know it's extremely awkward sometimes but we're talking about money in church okay so you're not allowed to leave at this point because I said that but money in church man there's a lot of friction in that ideas in there and a lot of you are probably expecting me just to come up and say give us more that's not what we're talking about this morning we are gonna talk about giving and how fun it is and how much God does call us to give but he also calls us to be wise with all of our finances to store up wealth for future generations and to just make great decisions and I am convinced that God's Word gives us the best standing point for every decision that we can make in our lives and the Bible talks a lot about finances to give us good direction and good insight on what to do with these things but the first thing that I want to address is how we get money because a lot of us have this idea that work is a curse anybody out there absolutely love your job okay we got like three and a half five hands there okay how many of you would quit tomorrow if you could all right well Kurt put your hand down I'm kidding but a lot of us go through this mentality of I have to go to work because I've got bills to pay I've got to do this and that and work is an obligation it's a chore that we have to slog through just to get to the weekend or to hope we've got enough energy at the end of the day to enjoy something but I want to change our perspective on that because work is not a curse work is actually a blessing from God and back in the Garden of Eden Adam had a job even before they eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil before they ate from that tree all the Adam and Eve knew was good so evil work can't be evil if everything that knew was good and good alone God worked to create all of the world in six days and on the seventh day he rested from his work working is good and we need to reframe our perspective on what work looks like and how to address when we've got to go in for 40 60 80 hours a week and slog away at something that we might not care all that much about but we can take on the perspective that working is good it's good to have something for us to do to get involved in and even if you're retired working is still good not that you have to work for money anymore but you can work in serving and making your community your family your neighborhood and your church a better place because God gives everything to us James 1 17 says every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of heavenly lights and I believe that work is a blessing for us it gives us something to do it gives us a way to serve and advance God's kingdom so whether you have a job right now or not find something that you can make a meaningful contribution to those around you and to advance God's kingdom through that because as we work we get to interact with people as well and people are important people matter to God that's why we celebrate these carnations that's why we celebrate people giving their lives over to Jesus Christ but I want to abolish this mentality that work is just something we've got to get through and to see that it's something that God promotes and wants us to use for his kingdom Proverbs 6 says take a lesson from the ants you lazy bones learn from their ways and become wise now Proverbs was written by a man named Solomon at least most of them and he was the wisest man to ever live probably ever ever and certainly the wealthiest person in his time possibly the wealthiest person ever to walk the face of the earth so if there's anybody in the world who's got a free pass to just sit back and relax and not have to work it was Solomon he could have just had everybody doing his work for him because he had inherited a great kingdom and God had given him great wisdom he could have just sat back and said do all my work for me and yet as he writes this book primarily to his children to teach them how to live some of the main focuses are chasing after wisdom how to work well and how to use your money well so we're gonna be spending a lot of time in Proverbs this morning as we look at these things so learn from the ants and become wise though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work they labor hard all summer gathering food for the winter but you lazy bones how long will you sleep when will you wake up how many of you said that to your kids this week a little extra sleep a little more slumber a little folding of the hands to rest a little bit more scrolling on Facebook and Instagram and tiktok then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit scare city will attack you like an armed robber working is good God wants you to be working for his kingdom for his glory and in whatever you do in word or deed do it all for the glory of God work for God's kingdom in anything and everything that you do that's the core critical piece of what the Christian work ethic should look like do everything for the glory of God not just some things now in case you're somebody who's like oh well that's Old Testament stuff we don't have to believe that anymore because Jesus came and fulfilled the law I would argue with that that after the service the Old Testament is still really really good for us and we can it's so profitable for Christians today but the New Testament also takes a really harsh stance on work let's look at second Thessalonians 3 10 those who are unwilling to work will not eat if you're unwilling to work if you're unwilling to pick up your hands and do something and contribute the Bible says you don't deserve to eat says you won't eat because well who's gonna make that food for you who's gonna make the money to get the food how are you gonna do that the Bible is very clear about work and now as we have changed your entire perspective about work in the last five minutes we're gonna transition talk about money and some of you might be thinking that well I already know what the Bible says about money the Bible says that money is the root of all evil anybody hear that anybody believe that before okay that's kind of true and that's how Satan likes to work a lot of times is he's gonna take something that's kind of true and he's gonna throw that into your life and say live on this this is kind of mostly true but 1 Timothy 6 10 actually says for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil you see money in and of itself is not good it's not bad it's completely a moral money is never gonna hurt anybody all by itself it's just like this chair right here okay is this chair good it's probably a good chair it's I sat in it before holds me up it does what it needs to do as a chair it's not evil right if I sit down in that chair that's a good use of that chair but if I pick up the chair and I hit Ben over the head with it is the chair evil no nothing has changed about the chair it's my attitude and my actions that determine whether that is used for good or used for evil and that's what I want each of us to think about this morning is how are you relating to money it's your heart chasing after something more than God because the Bible calls that an idol I want you to have a healthy relationship with finances I want you to understand what God's word says about what we do with money and we're gonna be my my greatest push and prompt for you a simple action step would be to sign up for financial peace University okay we're starting that up next week and I'm gonna tell you my personal story about this nine years ago Sarah and I had just moved out to New Jersey to take a job out of church and we were pregnant well we were pregnant Sarah was pregnant with Sophia our oldest daughter and I was looking at the world I'm like okay cool I've been a husband for about six years at that point and I felt woefully unprepared to be a husband I felt woefully unprepared to be an adult and yet I was making all of these adult decisions not just for myself but then for my wife and now I was looking at the idea of making adult decisions that are gonna affect my children and I wasn't ready to do that so fortunately our church was offering this thing called financial peace University and we charge for it at our church it was about a hundred dollars best hundred dollars I've ever spent Bridgewater believes in the power of financial peace University so much they're footing the bell okay so if any of what we're talking about this morning rings like oh I need more information on that sign up for financial peace University I guarantee you it'll be the best zero dollars that you've spent or your money back but because we took financial peace University nine years ago we were able to line up our finances better and as Ben said in the feed we were able to start an emergency fund to get rid of debt and to save for the future and that's what I hope that each and every one of you will have is the ability to stop being shackled by debt we're gonna talk about this concept this morning that in the Christian circles we call stewardship and stewardship is a very simple principle it's somebody else is giving me something to be in charge of and it's my responsibility to use that well my responsibility to go out and be responsible and faithful with the job and the duties that I've been entrusted with and the resources that I've been entrusted with for followers of Jesus Christ what that means is every good and perfect gift comes from God he is entrusted you with those things to use them to advance his kingdom yes so many of us are taking God's resources and we're making bankers richer because we're paying ridiculous interest fees and suddenly we become shackled by debt that instead of living open-handed with the things that God has given us we can't do the things that we want to do anymore the things that will advance God's kingdom because our paycheck goes off to the bank what I want you to look at this morning is Luke 16 verses 9 and 10 this is the heart that we should have here's the lesson use your worldly resources to benefit others and to make friends then when your possessions are gone they will welcome you to an eternal home use your worldly resources to benefit others and to make friends this is what the Bible teaches if you are faithful and little things you will be faithful and large ones if you are dishonest and little things you won't be honest with greater responsibilities either why would I trust you with more if you can't handle what I've given you already so God's word tells us however much money you do or don't have in the bank right now are you using that well are you being a good steward of that that's the goal of financial peace university that's the goal of this morning's message is to help God's people use his resources in a way to advance his kingdom so we've got two additional points that we're gonna go through this morning that are gonna talk about how we use these resources that God has given us and how we can start implementing those into our children's lives in our own lives as well because Proverbs 13 tells us a good man leaves in inheritance to his children's children but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous what that saying is that saving for the future is wise it's good and it's wise to save for the future and it's good and it's wise to start reframing your own mindset about how we use resources and finances to advance God's kingdom whether you're an older person or if you're a little kid okay we started giving our kids allowance we've given them we gave them five dollars a week and we were very intentional with how we gave that out and the best way that we can use actually the only way that we can use money is putting into one of three buckets okay you guys already have these buckets at your house you're already using them okay the first bucket that we give our kids their five dollar allowance into we give it to them in four singles and four quarters so that they can divide it out so we can have these proportions first bucket is our give bucket because it's so good to give we'll talk about that a little bit later and we just ask them okay just give 10 percent you can give more if you would like to but let's just start there as our baseline so they put chink chink their first two quarters into their give jars and this is a great investment for us for three dollars a piece we went down to the Dollar Tree and got them each literal jars so or three dollars we spent on all three of these jars and they've got a give jar that sits on their shelf and they've got a the next jars their save jar that okay you're gonna give some you're gonna save some and those are the two jars that we have a real hard time with don't we because we like that third jar a whole lot I just want to spend it all okay and what God's word tells us is let's be wise with the resources that we have we're gonna give some we're gonna save some for later and we're gonna spend in a way that honors God but as we look at the idea of saving for the future saving for the future is wise we need to be putting this money away because we know that winter is gonna come right and in northeastern Pennsylvania that could be like next week even though we're sweating in here today we know that winter is gonna come in just a few short months and winter is expensive but we know it's coming so we can save for that back in that Proverbs that we were just talking about Proverbs 6 8 tells us these ants who have little tiny ant sized brains labor hard all summer gathering food for what to splurge on right then now for the winter because they know that's coming and we know that literal winter is coming but there's also the metaphorical winters that are gonna come some of them that we plan for some of them are just gonna hit you upside the head and unfortunately statistics tell us that only four out of ten people in this room only 40 percent of Americans are ready to deal with a $1,000 emergency out of pocket if you had a $1,000 emergency that hit you today would you be able to pay out a pocket on that or you're gonna have to go into debt statistics say only 40 percent of people in this room can do that and that terrifies me because in the last year of our lives you can talk to me after the service about the winters that we hit and if we weren't ready for those things now we would be crippled and shackled in debt right now but there's four lies that we're gonna look at as we look at the idea of saving because we want your children we want you to be debt-free but there are two decisions in your life that I am confident will have generational impact long after your name is forgotten your kids will be able to your grandkids and great-grandkids will be able to look back and say so-and-so started this habit this practice that changed our family's future the first is to choose to follow Jesus Christ is your leader and forgiver if you don't know what that looks like please talk with somebody with a blue and white name tag after the service that's what I usually preach about most of the time and I hope that's what comes out of my mouth every time that I open it up but if you don't know Jesus is your leader and forgiver yet get that straight before you leave this room this morning the second decision that you can make that will impact generations beyond you is financial literacy to secure financial peace for yourself and your family and I know that idea of financial peace sounds like an oxymoron because finances are what stressed most people out the most I know they're what stressed me out the most and I went through the class maybe I didn't take it again but financial peace and freedom doesn't that sound good who who would not love to be debt free anybody you want to be shackled by debt but when that thousand dollar car repair bail comes in says 60% of Americans aren't ready to handle that and that's not a whole lot of money to be honest but the lies that we're gonna talk about with saving line number one I don't need a plan we'll get money in we'll spend it God's gonna provide you need a plan because if you fail to plan what happens come on you plan to fail you fail to plan you plan to fail and what Dave Ramsey in Financial Peace University will talk about will be instead of looking at the end of the month and asking where did my money all go give every dollar a job before it comes into your hands you tell your money where to go instead of wondering where it all went because if you don't tell your money where to go is gonna go on its own you're gonna walk through the streets of Founders Day and end up with empty pockets and full bags because man I just needed this or that and a full belly to after that but you need a plan you need a budget if you sign up for Financial Peace University you're gonna get 12 months free of a budgeting app called every dollar that will just help you with those parameters and setting out those ideas of how to use my money and how to appropriately put it into those give save and spend jars okay so that's line number one I don't need a plan if you don't tell your money where to go it's gonna go all on its own line number two I don't make enough to save and there's budget cuts that all of us can make some of us are paying two three hundred dollars a month to have 300 channels of cable TV that we're not gonna watch some of us are just paying exorbitant internet fees because well they told me I needed this much if anybody if you don't know what an MBPS is on your internet bill you don't need as many as you got right now okay but look at ways that you can cut back your budget of course there's always ways you can go out and get a side hustle maybe you can sell one of your kids or something don't sell them on eBay you made those things sell them on Etsy but there are things that you can do to free up your own resources that you're already using look through those subscription services do I really need Netflix Paramount Plus HBO Max Disney Plus and all these other pluses that are nickelling diming you into the poor house no maybe you can use the time that you're watching those shows to start up a side business to aggressively get yourself out of debt but it's a lie that you don't make enough to save you can put something away maybe it's choosing to eat out a little bit less because for one meal for myself that I can get from McDonald's and leave feeling horrible about myself and all of my life decisions I can feed my entire family a great burger meal and have leftovers for the next day same price but just look at your budget and see how you can cut those things back because you make enough to start putting things away Proverbs 21 20 says the wise have wealth and luxury but fools spend whatever they get is a simple concept called margin leave yourself a little bit of room by second some money away and live on what's what's left lie number three it's okay to spend money I don't have this one kills me I am so ridiculously averse to debt it might be a problem for me but the numbers that we're gonna put up on the screen this is the average American debt so this is all across the country of quarter three from 2023 how much debt the average American is carrying totals up to a hundred and four thousand dollars the average person is swimming in debt without their house okay that's why the mortgage is so much more than that credit card debt is a killer average American has sixty five hundred dollars in credit card debt some of you out there are celebrating like I'm above average for once in my life okay those numbers terrify me and just think if we didn't have those debts to pay how much more could we be doing for God's kingdom how much more could we be doing to advance the name of Jesus Christ to save people from eternity separated from him lie number four it's fine to make just the minimum payments oh do you want that it's fine to make the minimum payments sixty five hundred dollars in credit card debt if you only make the minimum payments how long are we gonna be paying on that ten years twenty you're gonna pay twenty years for sixty five hundred dollars on minimum payments alone and you're gonna end up paying seventeen thousand dollars for that six thousand dollars you thought you needed to spend way back here and have since long forgotten about whatever the heck you bought and that's if you make all your payments don't miss one and don't buy anything else feels a little silly now to pull out that credit card to pay for that doesn't it Proverbs 22 says just as the rich rule the poor so the borrow is servant to the lender a lot of translations will change that word servant and say this the borrow is slave to the lender and that's what I'm talking about being shackled with these debts because we know that every dollar that comes into our bank account every week that we work X amount of those hours are just going to pay some banker sitting in his third home on the Riviera somewhere instead of going to something that our family or God's family even more importantly can use finally giving is a fun essential some of us think and I've known many people who run away from church because they're like they just want all of your money and they want to do everything that they want to do with that and I'm not here to guilt you guys into buying Pastor Kurt a second plane because his old ones really getting pretty shoddy his plane is fine giving is a fun essential how much fun would it be to walk into a restaurant sit down to have a great meal and pay for your waiters tuition how much fun would it be to find somebody who's living on the streets and say hey we're gonna put you up in a house for the next three months while you get on your feet while you get you some job training and we get you into a job where you can work and contribute wouldn't it be awesome if Bridgewater Church Tunkannock could all get together and do one of Dave Ramsey's where debt free screams to say that all of the money that we're working for throughout the week can actually be used for God's purposes to advance his kingdom not to pay off those bankers Proverbs 11 says give freely and become more wealthy be stingy and lose everything the generous will prosper those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed giving is fun giving is good I do encourage you to contribute to the local church but if you're not a believer find a charity they give it to find somebody that you believe in the community work that they're doing this is not just a cash grab from somebody who will hopefully be on staff if you guys vote me in in a couple of weeks this is not me saying I need your money it's not God saying I need your money he already has it he's given it to you and trusting you to do what's right with it to be faithful with it and finally this is a quote from a dude who I just encountered this week his name is Alex Hormozi and he is a self-made I don't even know what you call it a hundred millionaire he's worth over a hundred million dollars he was a an immigrant to this country his father came with basically a suitcase and nothing else and he worked hard and has made himself a hundred million dollars to sit in the bank and he says anyone who says money can't buy happiness hasn't given enough away and you're not happy give some more money to someone else if you've got it to give but get your financial house in order let Jesus into his finances into your finances and trust his word that what he says is good and that he is going to do amazing things in and through you when you choose to surrender an obedience to him so finally this morning just my one last push for you will throw up the QR code on the screen financial piece University sign up for it I guarantee you you will benefit from it you will have better financial habits that your children and grandchildren great great great grandchildren will appreciate if you haven't taken financial University yet get started and it will help you with so many decisions and so many questions that you've got right now let's pray together Logan we are so grateful that you have given us so many good gifts and God we confess that we haven't used them well sometimes but instead of shaming ourselves over that father I pray that you will use us to advance your kingdom and your glory because God we trust that your word is good and we surrender to your will in our lives God I open up I pray that every person in this room will open up the doors that they've been keeping you out of to allow your word to rule and reign in our hearts and in our minds and in our lives God let us put this into action because I know that you want your people to be able to use the things that you have blessed them with for greater things God be with us today use us for your glory in your kingdom and the awesome and holy name of Jesus Christ we pray amen
