06) God’s Money, Not Mine? 01/08/2008 @ 6:30
Session #6
GOD’S MONEY, NOT MINE?
“Striving to be financially free for God.”
Matthew 6 : 24 (MSG)
24 “You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both.
If you focus only on money, all you’ll see in your job is a paycheck. Your job, your career is worth MUCH MORE than that and SO ARE YOU!
1 Corinthians 15 : 58
58 With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.
“If you want to see where someone’s priorities are, just look at their checkbook.”
OVERTIME vs FAMILY/GOD JOB vs FAMILY coming up again!!
This is where Satan wants you to be!! Satan wants to distract you from the important things in life. Debt is a foothold where Satan can control you.
SMALL GROUP SCRIPTURE
Ephesians 2 : 3 – 5 (MSG)
He Tore Down the Wall
1-6 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
Have you ever found yourself working too much overtime?
Have you worked overtime and missed Church because of it?
Have you worked overtime out of necessity or out of greed?
Financially free for God
“To be financially free is something that Satan nor our credit card companies want for us.”
God wants us to be financially free as a way to honor Him.
The lust for money
The Bible has over 2,350 versus that talk about money, more than about love and salvation!!
MONEY IS A NECESSITY, but we should use it as such and with GREAT responsibility!!
SMALL GROUP QUESTION
What are and write three items that interfere with your worship and service to God?
Lord of my wallet?
Whenever we allow ourselves to think we are capable of honoring God, but without allowing Him in our finances, we are sinning by setting limitations and conditions on God.
John 15 : 4 (MSG)
4 “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.
God should be in every area of our life! Not just in some areas. Not just on Sunday, but everyday and in every aspect.
Do you allow God to be the Lord of your entire life or just Lord of parts of your life?
We should not spend our efforts keeping God away from the possessions that He has blessed us with, and that includes our families. Instead, we need to learn to use the gift of our job to God’s glory.
Make the effort to attend Church or a small group Bible Study (like PeaceKeepers) at least once a week.
We need to be constantly reminded that God is the owner of all our possessions and we are only the caregiver of the things God provides for us.
This is all easy to say as a Christian, but hard to do. Today’s culture, media and even laws tell us that what you possess, you alone own.
Small Group Scripture
1 Chronicles 29 : 11 – 12
10-13 David blessed God in full view of the entire congregation:
Blessed are you, God of
from of old and forever.
To you, O God, belong the greatness and the might,
the glory, the victory, the majesty, the splendor;
Yes! Everything in heaven, everything on earth;
the kingdom all yours! You’ve raised yourself high over all.
Riches and glory come from you,
you’re ruler over all;
You hold strength and power in the palm of your hand
to build up and strengthen all.
And here we are, O God, our God, giving thanks to you,
praising your splendid Name.
Matthew 6 : 24 (MSG)
24 “You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both.
Do you believe you can serve both God and money? If so, how?
In what ways can you keep a balance between family, church and work? Share you answers with the group.
“Godly Business Leaders” from The PeaceKeepers
Putting God first in finances and being financially responsible and debt free is:
A statement of my gratitude
A statement of my priorities
A statement of my faith
Small Group Questions
How many of us could give up our life fortunes and possessions for God?
How can we honor God in our home financial practices just as these men have done in their business lives?
How many of us can’t find the time to give one day each week back to God?
Debt is always a LIABILITY
Romans 13 : 8-10
Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don’t sleep with another person’s spouse, don’t take someone’s life, don’t take what isn’t yours, don’t always be wanting what you don’t have, and any other “don’t” you can think of—finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can’t go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.
Debt contribute to SLAVERY
Proverbs 22 : 7
7 The poor are always ruled over by the rich,
so don’t borrow and put yourself under their power.
Debt leads to POVERTY
Deuteronomy 28 : 15, 43 – 44
15 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
I live on CREDIT, rather than PAYING CASH
Proverbs 3 : 27 – 28
27 Do not withhold good from those who deserve it,
when it is in your power to act.
28 Do not say to your neighbor,
“Come back later; I’ll give it tomorrow”—
when you now have it with you.
I’m trying to KEEP UP with my neighbors
Ecclesiastes 4 : 4
4 And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
I fail to PUT GOD FIRST in my finances
Malachi 3 : 8
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’
“In tithes and offerings.