Daddy’s Money

Oh, today’s sermon was so good! And here it is 8:42pm and I haven’t blogged about it yet. My reasons for blogging so late are very boring, but I’ll share them anyway! It’s Les’ dad’s birthday tomorrow. His church had a potluck for him. So, after we left our church, we high-tailed it over there to gorge ourselves on casseroles and brownies. Then we had to pick up Les’ truck from the shop and drive home in a two seater. Fun times with a gargantuan carseat. Lydia got her nap 2 hours late and slept for a mere 45 minutes. She then proceeded to follow me around and whine for the next hour. Her stunt of the night was falling head first into a Build-a-Bear box and scraping her forehead. Later we had our neighborhood Bible study which my brother led. (Click here for a preview…unless you are easily offended.) Suffice to say I AM SO GLAD TO BE HOME AND QUIET. (Did I just yell that? Sorry.) Without further ado, God’s Word–

Remember last week we came to the conclusion that we’re all rich. Here’s a good statistic for you: 6.8 million teenagers in the US own a car. 94% of people world-wide do not own a car. How rich are we?!

The idea today is that all our wealth has nothing to do with our amazing abilities, our skills or our inherent awesomeness. All our wealth is from God. Money is the gift, God is the gift-giver. This is right in the Bible–Paul tells Timothy, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” (italics mine)

We can stack our money up as high as a wall. We can depend on it, lean on it and love it, but it can’t provide for us. It can’t take care of our kids, it can’t heal our bodies, it can’t bring us joy, love or peace. And why would we want to do this in the first place when we can just rely and lean on our Heavenly Father, who RICHLY provides for us anyway? Why love the gift when we can love the giver?

It’s like the teenager who is proud to drive his dad’s sports car. Everyone knows that 16 year old kid didn’t buy it. And the dad knows it. He’s just letting his son use it because He loves him and wants him to enjoy His wealth! How dumb would it be for the kid to rely on that car? Or to turn to the car for more? Just go to the one who gave the car in the first place!

We ended with our phrase from last week coupled with a new part, “God has blessed me with more than I need. I am rich. I will not trust in my riches but in the One who richly provides.” Go ahead, say it out loud! That’s good isn’t it?

And a few more verses to feed you:

Proverbs 18:11 The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall. (italics mine again)

Ecclesiastes 5:10 Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. (fyi, written by King Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived and one of the wealthiest)

(ps–Diann gave me a heads up that my church now does a podcast. If you are a creepy stalker and wanted to find out which church I went to, I know you could. But I don’t want to make it easy for you. So, if you are a normal person and would like some info about the podcast, just shoot me an email, k?)