0:00 to us your heart area of money. We want you to speak to us and us to understand it. We love you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen. All right. So, we're going to continue. This will actually be part four on 0:18 money. The first part, just as a recap, we talked about silos of a of a barn and how money is a way to store. And so, uh, our the Bible gives one of the best pictures of what money is. It's a way to store things for for later, for down the 0:33 road. And one of the things that we we saw and what we're challenged with is not storing it up for ourselves, but being rich toward God, storing so that we can be rich towards him. And we saw an attitude of being ready to give and 0:45 willing to share in the scriptures for those of us who are rich. And uh, if you've ever been to another country, you'll quickly figure out that yeah, you're rich. You may not feel rich but uh compared to it's all a matter of 0:57 comparison. The next we talked about giving and we looked at uh that verse of not you know not knowing what your right your left hand not knowing what your right hand is doing and uh we kind of examined that internally saying that 1:10 when I give with my right hand I don't want my left hand keeping an account. If the Lord wants to keep an account that's up to him but I don't need to keep track of everything I've ever given. And then we looked at it externally that in some 1:22 of our relationships it's good if we can keep it completely secret so that the only one that ever sees giving is our father in heaven and it deepens that relationship because he's the only one that knew knew I gave the right hand 1:33 didn't even know. So that was our second one. Then in our third one we talked about debt and we looked at the verse in Romans 13:8 that says hey owe nobody anything except to love them. We were, you know, kind of challenged to to avoid 1:46 debt, to avoid going into debt and and letting uh going back into bondage uh through through money and through owing people. And we looked at some some of the traps and some of the ways to to get into debt and the ways to avoid debt and 1:59 to not have any let anybody have any type of financial yoke over us that we're free. Christ set us free so we don't want to put ourselves in unnecessary bondage. So that was the the third one. And we tal we we we looked at 2:11 these verses and I I I keep going back to this because it's so important especially as we look at money. Like the goal is that we love God more and if we're not meeting that goal then I'm failing. I tell you honestly like you 2:22 know that money is the thing in the world that is going to oppose God in our hearts. It is it's not Satan. You know that choice between God and Satan's easy. The choice between God and money I I I see it in the world around me and I 2:35 see it in my own heart is much harder. So we want to make sure that as we think about these things we're our love for God is growing and our our our love for money is diminishing right going down and down and down and then we see from 2:48 this verse that there is a connection for every one of us whether we have a lot of money or a little money there's this connection where God is using it to test whether he can give us that which is really valuable right to see if we'll 3:01 just settle for the money or if we'll really long for that which is valuable by being faithful in money and so we want to continue to grow in that and learn like okay this thing there is some connection God is using this to test and 3:13 uh I want what's really valuable I don't want to settle for it I want what's really valuable so Lord teach me uh to do this right so that I'm attaining what's what what you really want to give me so today the the fourth one we're 3:25 going to look at at discipline and uh those of us that have chosen to be disciples of Jesus need discipline you see the connection how it's basically the same root word, right? A disciple needs discipline. And so I want to start with 3:40 just looking at some verses. You're familiar with these verses, but you may not have paid attention to this element of it. You know, almost every kid knows the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, 3:50 faithfulness, goodness, and self-control. But it's that last one they they probably don't pay attention to very much. That last fruit is self-control, which is in essence the same thing as discipline, right? Discipline is being able to control 4:02 yourself, control your desires. And this verse says that, you know, it goes on to say that, you know, he who belongs to Christ has has crucified the flesh. He has discipline over his flesh. And one of the definitions we heard a couple 4:15 Friday nights ago is that the, you know, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, you know, all the things of the world, the lust of the eyes is is a desire to buy everything that our eyes see, right? And maybe maybe you say, 4:29 well, not everything. what there are things that oh you want this but you also want this and that you want this and you know overcoming that desire to just spend money wildly on things that you think will fulfill your flesh and so 4:42 that self-control fruit of the spirit that that element is in direct opposition to like just wanting to buy and have everything that you see so we see that and again discipline and self-control are the same thing right so 4:56 we want to see this you know what I'm talking about and when I talk about discipline and money. It's a fruit of the spirit. So, we need the spirit of Christ. And I don't know how much you, you know, when you think of being filled 5:05 with the Holy Spirit or baptized or immersed in the Holy Spirit, I don't know how much of us are looking for the evidence in self-control because that is a fruit of the spirit. Here's another verse that's very similar to that. Paul 5:17 tells Timothy, you know, to examine yourself, see which spirit you're of. If you're finding a spirit of timidity and anxiety and fear, you know that's not of God. But the but what you're wanting to look for is power to overcome sin and love 5:34 and look at this word discipline. Right? So if we don't have the spirit, if we examine our spirits and we we're finding a lack of discipline in our life, we we know where we go. We go to our heavenly father and we say we need 5:46 your spirit to dwell inside of us to give us that discipline. It's very clear. Yet the next verse Paul talks, this is Paul again, right? right? He's writing to the church in Corenth and he uses discipline or self-control in 5:59 another way. And here he speaks almost as if it's the burden is on Paul. He says, "I discipline my body." The first two verses we talked about, you know, it was a I need the Holy Spirit to come and give me that discipline. But Paul's 6:14 saying, I need to discipline myself. Even though I've preached to others and established churches and all this stuff, I have to discipline myself to the end. And so in these three verses, we see both. And I can't tell you where one end 6:29 and one starts. I'm not I'm not interested. I just want to look at the scriptures and go, Lord, I know there's probably a pain that's going to come through discipline that I'll need to endure, and I want to, but I also need 6:39 your help. And and you know, when I see things in scripture that suggest that it's all on me and other verses that suggest it's all on him, what I see there is just fellowship. Lord, help me to do my part. help me to work out what 6:53 you've been working in. And so there's a fellowship of your spirit working with my will and there's a harmony in that. So either way, however you want to pray, Lord, give me the discipline or fill me with your spirit so that I have 7:06 discipline. However you want to think about it, I don't think it matters. The scriptures speak of both. So both work. But either way, I want that discipline and self-control in the area of money. So this what we're going to look about 7:18 look at this morning. We're going to look at uh discipline particularly in the area of money. And I have a I have the military. A lot of people think of the military when it comes to discipline. And one of the things that I 7:28 observed in my 23 years in the military is that you have guys that are in the mil that serve in the military tend to be very disciplined in one area of their life, right? They're in their in their job, in their soldiering or in their uh 7:43 career. They're they tend to be very disciplined. But one of the things I noticed about military guys, the vast majority of them were very undisiplined in money. And and very often that's why they stayed in the military is because 7:54 when it came time for them to get out, they weren't financially secure enough to leave. And so there was a usually a reinlistment bonus and they go ahead and commit for more time. And very often that was why people stayed in. But these 8:07 are people that also were sacrificed them their lives for the freedom that I have. And so I find that you know like you know it's easy for me to judge their lack of discipline right in the area of money but still be impressed by their 8:22 discipline in the area of service and that that's a challenge for me. So what I'm saying is like some of you may be very disciplined in money or you think you're very already very disciplined in money and so so we agree on that. Okay 8:35 maybe you're disciplined but are you disciplined in the area of food? Are you disciplined in the area of studying your Bible? Are you disciplined in the area of prayer? And so, it's easy for us to find ourselves disciplined in one area and to 8:51 look down on other people, right, that aren't disciplined in that same area and realize that they're more disciplined in other areas. So, this isn't an area where we want to judge anybody else. I want you to I want each of us to examine 9:02 ourselves when it comes to discipline and money. And some of you, you know, have a lot of money. So, it's easy to be disciplined. When you have very little money, it maybe it's a little more challenging. So, this is for you. This 9:13 isn't I wish somebody else could have heard this message on on discipline, on money. No, this is yours. Even if you have a lot of it, I it's intended for all of us. And I found when it when it comes to myself and when it comes to 9:25 what I've observed around me, one of the most critical components of discipline is motivation. If I'm motivated, I I can I can run marathons. I can do incredible things if the motivation is there. And if it's not there, then it's very hard to 9:42 discipline. Do you agree with me? If the motivation is not there, why discipline myself? Then I'm just kind of an, you know, doing these things for an aesthetic reason. I'm doing I'm laboring in vain. If there's no there's no reason 9:54 or no motivation to do it. And I was thinking about the first three ver first three lessons we talked about and how these are great motivations, right? One of the best motivations to discipline yourself is that you want to 10:06 be rich towards God. Oh, that I could sacrifice in a little bit of area to give him something. You know, even if it's a small thing, I I want to sacrifice so I can give him something. So, if I can use this silo, if I can 10:18 build a silo so I can be rich towards God, that would be wonderful. It's a wonderful motivation. The second one is good, too, right? I want to discipline myself so that I have something to give to others because if I just spend it all 10:30 on myself or just spend it all on my needs, there's nothing for anybody else. That's a tremendous motivation, right? I want to be I want to be, you know, have a stuff stored up so that I can give if I see somebody in need out of love 10:42 towards them. And then the last one, I don't want to be in debt. I don't I want to obey that scripture. So, I can't just, you know, spend how I want. I need to discipline myself so that I'm never in debt, never owe anybody. and I'm 10:54 willing to sacrifice to avoid that situation where I owe somebody. So this motivation point we've already been covering. And when we're properly motivated, the discipline will come. And if we're not properly motivated, then we 11:07 ask the Holy Spirit, give me the motivation. And the Holy Spirit loves to reveal Christ to us, doesn't he? So as we go for motivation, I think this is a good point to look at Jesus as our example and our forerunner. Lord, did 11:20 you have to deal with money? And I didn't see this for many years. I I studied Christian finance, which meant tithe. Tithe and then uh be wise in your money. But now that I'm study, now that I'm getting more light on this, I want 11:35 to look at Jesus. Lord, how did you do it? You were tempted just like me. You went through life just like I did. How did you interact with money? And if I'm willing to search and dig a little bit, I'm finding things that I never saw 11:47 before. I learned a lot from Zack Punan. I praise God for him cuz I I I had this Bible. It's my same Bible, but I never noticed. I never paid attention. I didn't look that closely. But now I want to see. So, let's dig a little bit and 12:00 see if we can see our Lord and how he he how he was disciplined with money. And one of the first things I see after his baptism and after he's anointed with the Holy Spirit descending on a dove like him, he goes into temptation. 12:13 And I was thinking about these temptations and how they really are related to money, right? The first temptation is to turn stones into bread. And scripture makes it uber clear he was hungry. After not eating for 40 days, Jesus was 12:29 hungry. And the devil's like, "Hey, we got I got the solution for you, Jesus. Here's the solution. Turn these stones to bread and you can eat." And what's interesting, I don't know if you ever noticed, but once Satan leaves, once 12:42 Satan leaves, then this a the angels come and they minister to him. And I'm picturing the angels feeding Jesus. And what I see is if if Jesus had not waited just a little bit longer, just a little bit longer. You know, if he'd settled 12:59 for Satan feeding feeding him, he would have missed the angels feeding him. And in money very often, that's the temptation, brothers and sisters, isn't it? Can you hold out a little bit longer? You know, uh, one of the things 13:10 I love about Amber, my wife, is that, you know, we'll we'll discuss a purchase and she'll she'll go on Amazon and she'll put it in the cart, but she won't buy it. She'll just leave it in that cart for a while. And sometimes she'll 13:21 come back a week or two later and it's still in the cart. And I've discovered it cuz I thought she already bought it. And she's like, "No, no, no. I just wanted to leave it in the cart for a while and make sure." And then very 13:30 often she'll come back and she'll, "Yeah, I realize we really didn't need that." Then we don't spend the money on it because we waited just a little bit longer. And we see that in Jesus. Same thing with the kingdoms of the earth. 13:41 Sat Satan offers him all the money. Here's all the money and everything that the money can buy. Do you want it? And if Jesus had taken it that that now, he wouldn't have got it from his father. Who would you rather have it from? Satan 13:53 or from from God our father? Now Jesus is the preeminence. Right now everything is held together by him. He's the head. He's the the head of the church. He's the head. He got it from his father. He was willing to wait a little bit. That 14:10 discipline just just a little bit longer. Don't spend it now. Don't waste it now. Don't accept it now. Just wait a little bit longer and you'll get it anyway and you'll get something better anyway. And I see that. So when it comes 14:22 to money, that discipline, the motivation, I look at Jesus and see that he was offered something right then. He could have taken a shortcut, but he said, "No, wait." And it's one of the best exercises we can have with money. 14:33 Well, let me wait. Let me wait on my father. Lord, is this what you want me to buy this car now? No, no, no. Just wait and see if he answers. Wait. And I see that from Jesus. So, he had discipline with money even when he 14:46 was tempted in these areas. Here's another thing I see with Jesus. No waste. You know, when he did the miracle where he somehow, you know, uh through the through the power of the spirit was able to feed 5,000 men plus women and 14:59 children off of five loaves and two fish. Did you notice that in each of these four accounts in the gospels, they gather up all the leftovers, 12 basket fulls, they they gather up the leftovers. And I see the principle very 15:13 very important principle Jesus would not waste even if there was abundance. I think most of us in this room are better off financially than we once were. I think we have we have stories in our life where we didn't have as much. I 15:26 didn't. There was a time in my life when when I when when I felt like I had very very little. All my needs were met. My parents took care of me, but it just felt like we didn't have very much. You know, I went to Walmart the other day. 15:38 That was like the mall when I was growing up to go into a Walmart and I went there as a a 47 year old man that has a good paying job and I had to stay away from certain aisles because as a kid, you know, my dream was one day I'll 15:50 be able to go to Walmart and I'll get all the all these stuff. There's so many good things here. I only walked out with three items, so I'm not completely there yet, right? mostly chocolate and things like that. So, right, but you you 16:03 suddenly, you know, now that we have more, there's a tendency to waste. You know, my dream is that one day when we have lunch that as I I go around and we're cleaning up that I wouldn't find a single morsel of food left, but now I 16:16 still I I still find a lot of waste. And I challenge you kids when you go up there, when you get your plate, you say, "No, no, just a little bit. Only take what you'll eat." Even though we have plenty of food back there, you take only 16:27 what you'll eat. And I would love it if one day we're all cleaning up and we don't find any food because we we don't waste. And I learned that from Jesus. And it gets harder now that we have an abundant. It's much easier to waste, isn't it? Ah, but I 16:42 love if we can keep this principle in in and money that no, you know, no matter how much we have, we don't waste a morsel of it. And I learned that from Jesus. I learned that from Jesus. Here's another thing I learned from him. I 16:57 never saw this until Zach pointed it out. How did Jesus spend money? You know, we talked about not comparing ourselves to others. The only person I would encourage you to compare yourself to in the area of discipline and money 17:08 is Jesus. And it's a it's almost in passing. I read this scripture uh John 13:29. It's in passing. It's when Jesus it's when Judas is betraying Jesus and it's what all the disciples thought. You know what they what oh uh Jesus just 17:24 whispered something to Judas. He said something about doing whatever he's going to do do quickly. Well, what's he going to do? Well, usually when Jesus would talk to to Judas, he would tell him to either give some money to the 17:35 poor or buy something that we need. There you go. That's who you compare yourself to. Brother, brothers and sisters, are you so disciplined that those two principles encompass everything you do with money? I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet. 17:55 Jesus is my example. He's the one I want to compare myself to. Those two principles in in my abundance, you know, do I give to the poor or only buy the things that I have needed of? That's what Jesus did. And I I I I missed it in 18:07 scripture for many many years. I I see it now. And I want him to be my example when it comes to discipline and money. I want him to be my motivation. Lord, I want to be like you. You didn't waste. You were very careful. 18:20 you were disciplined. I want to be like you." And so I see it at the It kind of comes out at the Lord's table kind of just a little nugget that I missed for many years. It's right there. Now I see and now I want to live it. I want to conclude with 18:37 this. I want to take some time to look about it. I've really been thinking a lot about this. There's a story. There's four verses. If you have bi your Bible, I'm not going to put the words up on the screen. I prefer you go to your Bible 18:47 and read it. You're probably familiar with it. It's in John chapter 12. And it's a story um it's a story of that woman, that sinful woman that had the privilege of anointing Jesus's feet with 19:05 perfume and using her hair and her tears to wipe and anoint that that precious body. You're familiar with the story, but I want you to think about it in terms of discipline and and money. I'll start at verse three. Her name was 19:22 Mary. And I I I went through all the scriptures I could I could look through. And I'm convinced there was only one one story. Um you may see it differently and that's fine, but I think there was just one story. I think three gospels give 19:36 you different pictures of it, but I think it was one time. That's my conviction. You don't have to share that. But you know, as I look at this, it says, "Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume, a pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his 19:55 feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." But Judas a Scariot, one of his disciples who was intending to betray him, said,"Wh was this perfume not sold for 300 dinari 20:12 and given to poor people?" Now he said this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief. As he had the money box, he used to piler what was put into it. Now, I want to stop for a minute and I 20:29 want you to imagine you're in the room. This is what I did. I imagined I was in the room there and I I I just heard I'm one of the disciples. So I'm one of the 12 and I you know I know you know the thoughts we had when you know Judas 20:43 betrayed that you know what Jesus seemed to do was he would give something to the poor and he would only buy the things that he had need of. Remember that we we just looked at it. you remember? And so I'm watching this encounter and if you 20:55 you put the gospels together, if we believe that they're the same event in Matthew's gospel in chapter 26, I believe it is, Matthew says, "The disciples plural were indignant. They all said this." So I'm picturing if I put it 21:09 together, Judas says, "Look at this waste. 300 dinari is like 300 days wasted." So a year salary, $60,000. Let's use the medium salary for the United States. It's rough. I don't know if it's exactly that, but somewhere, let's say $60,000, 21:22 a $60,000 jar of perfume. And one of the one of the disciples, one of my peers says, "What a waste. What a waste." And if I'm honest with myself, and I'm one of those 12 disciples, I'm like, "Yeah, what a waste. 21:42 We've watched Jesus give to the poor. We've had to sacrifice to give to the poor. That's 60,000 bucks. Why are we just pouring it? Why are we letting this woman pour it on his feet? Especially the type of woman she is. Why? Why is this happening? Indignant. 21:58 Says it says the disciples and I believe it was all 12 of them were indignant. Judas suggested they're all on board with it. Absolutely. That's Judas is right. Judas is right. Why were they indignant? And so Judas, who said it first, even 22:15 though they were all thinking of it, gets the reputation as the disciplined disciple, right, with money. Judas is the one good with money. He's got the money bag. That's why Jesus trusts him with the money bag. He's disciplined and 22:28 educated and he seems to get it. So he says this, and everybody agrees with Judas. But what about that woman? I think about her as I read the scriptures. I I can't prove it to you. But I have a feeling 22:45 that to save up for a year, to save up for a year, I don't know how many of you guys have saved up a year's wages, but I think she had to do a job that she didn't like. And I think she wanted out. And I talked about motivation earlier. 23:05 I remember a conversation with my dad one time. I used to be a complainer. Maybe maybe sometimes I still am, but I used to complain a lot about the military. I hated it. I remember talking to my dad and he said he said, "If you 23:18 really hate it that bad, make sure you're saving every penny you can so you can get out." I was like, "That's some good advice." And I did that. There's money I saved that I still have today because my goal was to get out of the military. 23:33 And so I found myself when I was in a job I hated, I found myself much more disciplined with with money because I was motivated. But I'm picturing this woman and I'm picturing years. I don't think she saved it up in one year. I 23:45 think it took her years to save it. And she hated what she did. And I think it was sinful. This is my conviction. I can't show you in scripture. And she hated it. Hated it. And she would save. And she said, "One day, one day I'm 24:00 going to get out of this this trap. One day I'll get out." And she would save and she would save and she would save and she would save. She would discipline herself. She said, "I'm not going to spend it. One day I'll be 24:14 free." She was disciplined. She was the example, not Judas. Judas was undisiplined. He was still. He didn't even trust Jesus to provide his needs. He had to steal from the money bag to buy the things that he wanted. He got the credit. And brothers and 24:33 sisters, I tell you honestly, had I been in that room, I would have said that, "Yeah, Judas is right. He's the disciplined guy with money, not her. She's wasting it." But I tell you, brothers and sisters, I believe she was tremendously 24:47 disciplined. And then one day, she meets Jesus. and everything she had been working for, everything she had been working towards to be free. She thought money would get her the freedom. It wasn't. It was him. It was his his precious blood. She's 25:02 finally set free. And then she says, "Well, what do I do with the money? What do I do with the money?" [snorts] And something prompts her. He says, "I'll pour it out on him. I'll pour it out on Jesus. I don't care what anybody says about me. 25:22 I'll use my feet, my hair. I'll I'll I'll take all humility. I'll get rid of all dignity and I'll just pour out what I've worked so hard for on him. So, be very careful, brothers and sisters, as we look around and we see 25:38 what looks like waste from somebody that's pouring their life and their money out on Jesus. I'm tremendously challenged with that. tend to rely on my own wisdom because I spent so many years studying these things but I I can be dead wrong. 25:56 I can think that this guy who has a you know seems to be you know in responsible for money and seems to be in charge of it like Judas he's the one that he should give us the lesson on discipline and money her very challenged by that brothers and 26:12 sisters I would encourage you there's there's actually uh three accounts of this Luke 7 uh John 12 and Matthew 26 and I would I would put them together I think you'll be tremendously blessed by that but when you get time. Go read 26:26 those together and look at the the details. All right. So, here's what we talked about this morning. Talked about discipline and [snorts] money being a fruit of the spirit. We need to cry out and and be honest. Lord, I'm not 26:38 disciplined. I lack discipline. Fill me with your spirit so that I can have that. And again, like we saw it again when Paul talked to Timothy, he said, "Hey, the Lord doesn't give you a spirit of timidity or fear." But one of the 26:51 things he gives you in addition to power and love is discipline. And so we want that spirit dwelling inside of us. And then we see a responsibility to be disciplined from from Paul, right? He says, "Even though I've done many things 27:05 for the Lord and preached many sermons, I have to discipline my body. I have the same flesh that has the same appetite and I have to stay disciplined. And so we see our need from these verses. And then we looked at motivation and and I 27:19 think it's good. It's I encourage you to have the motivation from the things we talked about the the silos, the giving and the debt. Let that motivate you to discipline yourself. I think you'll find a joy in it. The Lord himself has said it's better to 27:33 give than to receive. So discipline yourself so you have something to give to somebody else. And then we looked at Jesus and we looked at how, you know, sometimes spending is just waiting one extra moment, waiting on God to to, you know, 27:46 to provide instead of just, you know, doing it yourself. We see that with the temptation with all the riches of the world. And we see it with the the bread. And then we looked at Jesus's lack of waste and we learned from him there when 27:59 it came to money, even when there was an abundance, he says, "Hey, I want you guys to make sure we pick up all the leftovers." And they filled up 12 baskets. We see that in all four gospels. And then we looked at Jesus's uh 28:10 discipline and spending. We saw the two things that he did. And we're challenged by him. And we look only at him. I don't want to compare myself to any of you. I mean, I can learn from you. I'll see areas of your life that I can learn from 28:21 you definitely. But my example, the one that I'll I'll find my standard in is Jesus himself. And so the two things he did are the two things I want to do. I want to grow in that area. And then finally, we looked at John 12 and we 28:35 looked at that woman and we took an honest account. We examined our heart and we said, you know, who do I really think is disciplined with money? Is it the the sinful woman or is it Judas? And that that exercise applies today 28:50 when I look at the world. Who do I really think is disciplined with money? Just somebody that has a lot of it or a lot of responsibility with it? Or is it somebody like this woman who was so motivated to get out of her situation 29:01 and her state in life that she saved every penny she could? And that I look at things through Jesus's eyes and not through the world's eyes. Very important. That's all I have, brothers and sisters. Um there'll be more on money. Uh but praise 29:18 God for the things he's revealing to us today. Thank you.
