And so we started off the year talking about this idea that we all have a cause.
Some of us, our cause might be politics.
It might be uh, uh, uh, uh, going green or, or, or some force,
some something of some nature.
We all have a cause, but as disciples of Jesus, we have the greatest cause.
And that's the cause of Jesus Christ, Jesus the Lord, Jesus the Messiah.
We are not part of something that will fade or pass.
We're not part of something that we will not even talk about in a few years.
We're part of something that's been going on since the creation of the universe.
And so we have the opportunity to know, to follow, but then also show the real Jesus.
To our neighbors, our friends, and our coworkers.
And there's something that's really cool that's been going on and I, I,
I, I, I'm hopeful, I've been praying.
I feel like God, you want a revival here in the West, whether
it's in America or or in Europe.
I believe that God wants and is working on having a revival.
And in our churches we need a revival.
Amen.
And so we see something really cool.
I don't know if you guys have been taking notes, but you know, there's some things
that have been going on in our world in which, you know, there's always been
some, you know, when it came to the Great Awakening over in the 18 hundreds, or
you talk about the, the Jesus movement of the sixties and seventies, our heritage
of churches has always been a part of these movements and been pivotal in
God's word, advancing across the land.
And just a, a few weeks back there, some of you know, I
know big social media people.
You, uh, most of you guys are, uh, there was some, some uh, uh, kinda like a mini
old school revival tent revival taking place over in Kentucky at a small, uh,
university that that really started to spread and be something really large.
And then we seen the chosen series and we've also seen, uh, the Jesus
Revolution movie come out, which are having actually phenomenal success.
And so people are taking notes.
Something is going on right now, and my prayer is that our fellowship, we
won't be in the back row, but we'll be in the front lines of what God is doing.
Amen.
And so we've been looking at and studying out.
I believe God is working out the time.
I don't believe it's a coincidence as we start to go back and go,
Hey, let's focus, let's get back to who the real Jesus is and was.
And so that's what we've been studying out for the last couple of weeks.
Or, oh, sorry, got a little ahead on myself, who.
But some of y'all go, oh yeah, yeah.
Sorry.
Had to prepare you.
That was the Lord preparing you.
Yeah.
And so we've been studying now since the beginning of the year,
what we are calling the real Jesus.
And so we're walking through and studying out and walking through
the whole biography or letter of Luke that was written, documenting
Jesus's life in ministry.
And we've been learning what does it mean to follow the real Jesus.
And so we've learned a lot of good things.
And last week Kyle did a phenomenal job and showing us that Jesus finds what
was lost, that he's continually seeking and searching out for those of us who
are lost so that we can be found again.
And so we're gonna continue this week, and so we're gonna be talking about
how the real Jesus wasn't American.
Ooh.
Uh oh.
Yes, he went there.
Some of y'all don't like that.
Here's the thing, and this is why it's so important that we dive into who
Jesus really is, because what will happen, what does happen, which you
and I have done with societies and countries have done, what churches have
done, is we begin to have Jesus start to mold into what we want him to be.
So he begins to think the way we think, and so we insert or we put upon Jesus
our current context, our philosophy, our customs, our traditions into Jesus,
and they go, here's how Jesus would be.
But what happens is that we actually veer from following the real Jesus church.
Are you with me here again?
Every single one of us has done this.
That's why we even have these false images of what Jesus looks
like, because everybody wants Jesus to fit into their context.
This is why again, it's so important that we know the real Jesus and therefore we
make decision to follow the real Jesus.
And again, if you're a follower of real Jesus, then now you are part
of this opportunity of showing those around you who the real Jesus is.
Cuz right now we have a misunderstanding or uh, an inaccurate
depiction of who Jesus really is.
And so again, we're part of this great cause.
And so we're gonna go ahead and look into who the real Jesus was
and how he wasn't American Church.
Are you with me here?
All right.
Again, the real Jesus got some people upset, so I know there's already some
people upset and you wanna cancel me?
That's okay.
Because at least my wife and my kids love me.
Well, at least they love me on certain days.
You know what I'm saying?
But let's go ahead and let's go to the father and prayer.
Father, thank you so much.
Ready for this chance to worship you.
God, you are a God who is worthy of our worship.
And as we sang here today, God, we can raise a hallelujah.
We can say hallelujah.
We can say, praise the Lord, because you are good, because you have
rescued many of us in this room.
And God, we know you wanna rescue those who haven't been rescued yet.
And God, we pray right now that we can not only observe, we cannot only
consider, we cannot not only reflect, but God, that we can submit a surrender
to the Lordship of Jesus, God, that we can make decisions today to not
only know you, but to follow you.
And God, we know Easter's coming up pro Father, we pray that we can see more
and more souls have the opportunity to themselves know and follow the real Jesus.
It's in His name we pray.
Amen.
I got to mention a couple quick things there.
Um, uh, the Morriss from South Orange County are part of our church are
here, and, uh, they have a, a really cool thing called Higher Grounds.
And, uh, they're setting up their coffee set up outside for us after service.
So you can go ahead and get your, your fix in and, uh, go ahead and have some
fellowship with the higher ground.
So we want to thank the Mors.
I saw them earlier around here where they're setting up,
and we're excited about that.
Amen.
And real quickly, all those part of the sound class meet on stage after service.
Right?
Amen.
Uh, you know, in the church here, uh, at least in our, our, our, our North O
Sea ministry, we, we like to also join in on what America is celebrating this.
So, uh, in February there's Black History Month, and then we
also have Women's History Month that is currently taking place.
And so, all right, come on.
There you go.
Melody's fired up.
Hey man, her husband better be fired up, you know what I'm saying?
She's over here like, yeah, yeah.
Woohoo.
Where's your cheering at?
He's like, honey, you know, I love you.
All right, so, uh, you know what's really cool is we, we, yeah, we, we
value women the way Jesus value women.
But we're excited here today to go over, have a little treat, and we're
gonna actually have my wife, Karina Hall come up on stage here with us today.
And so, uh, Karina and I gonna go ahead and, uh, walk through some Luke
here and, uh, make some observations here and, uh, we can go ahead
and, uh, get into it real quick.
Now, I will say this here, this is so important here and just like we talked
about a few weeks ago, when Jesus challenges our worldviews is gonna lead us
to a point where we have to do something, we're either gonna make a decision that
we're just gonna reject who the real Jesus is or what he teaches, and just say, you
know what, no, I'm not gonna do that.
I'm just gonna still follow what I wanna follow and believe what I want to believe.
Or we can make a decision that I'm going to minimize it.
What he's saying to justify what I'm currently doing and what I desire.
Or we make a decision that we are gonna surrender, submits, and follow
him as Lord, and then make sure that covers my current context of life.
You guys get what I'm saying.
And so it's important here again, as we see this, that, that we understand
we're all gonna have to make a decision.
There's gonna be one of those three choices to either reject, to minimize,
or to accept and follow you guys with me.
Church, turn over in your Bibles to Luke chapter 16.
Luke chapter 16.
As we, uh, go there.
Let's, uh, Karina, I know many of the people know you, but let's go ahead and
maybe you can introduce yourself and share a little bit about who you are.
Sure.
Um, my name is Karina and I have been a Christian now for.
Uh, 22 years and, um, I am a wife.
I have the best husband in the world.
Amen.
Fired up.
I can go to bed well tonight.
Amen.
Okay, so I get that new thing that I wanted.
No, I'm just kidding.
. I said it.
Um, they're just kidding.
Um, I did tell her to say that.
I did tell her to say that.
Um, no, I have um, I have three kids.
We have three kids, uh, 12, 10, and four.
And, um, let's see.
Um, I am one of, uh, six kids, so I have lots of family, uh, that are all local
and um, that's a little bit about me.
Oh, and I work full-time in the ministry.
Um, but also recently I started, um, substitute teaching as well.
So little fun fact.
Amen.
Awesome.
Alright, well let's go ahead and let's get into it.
Luke chapter 16.
Church.
Are you with me?
All right, so here we go.
So in Luke chapter 16, we'll have to take it up here cuz we're gonna
see that Jesus is going to approach the topic and subject of money.
Ooh.
Oh yeah.
People tell me hate when we talk about money in the church here.
Okay?
All right.
This is not a plea to get more money.
This is not what it is, but we're gonna see the real Jesus wasn't
American because as Americans, what does our culture and society value?
Money.
And so this is a big part of our fabric as a culture.
And so Jesus is going to talk about money and wealth and possessions, but we're
gonna take it up right after He talks about this parable of the shrewd manager.
And he says something here in in verse nine.
He says, I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves
so that when it is gone, you'll be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.
And whoever dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
So, if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who
will trust you with true riches?
And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who
will give you property of your own.
No one can serve two masters.
Either they will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted
to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and money.
The Pharisees who loved money hurt all this and were sneering at Jesus.
That's interesting.
Sneering at 'em.
So, so they're upset that they, what he's saying and how it applies to them,
they're turning their nose up at Jesus as he says these things, and he said
to them, you are the one to justify yourselves in the eyes of others.
But God knows your hearts.
What people value highly is detestable in God's sights.
Let's go ahead and stop right there.
Karina, maybe you could share, what were some of the things that stood
out to you about the real Jesus.
Yeah, I think the biggest thing was obviously that um, he was
challenging their view of money and how, and specifically how uh,
they used it, how we were using it.
And so that story of the parable of the shrewd manager
is a little interesting to me.
Um, but what I got from it is he's, he's kind of turning things upside down.
He's like, okay, I'm giving you this.
Um, money is, is a tool and the way you're using it, you've is not
the way you should be using it.
Um, but I think what really stood out to me was verse 13, where he's, it
says, no servant can serve two masters.
Either he will hate the one and love the other, or will he will be devoted
to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and money.
And I, I think that really stood out to me because it's interesting that he said,
you cannot serve both God and money.
, but you think about money, money is an object.
Um, and it's supposed to serve us.
Um, it's the tool that we have for our purposes.
Like, so I just, it just made me think, wow, how do we then serve money?
How then does money become personified?
Um, and how then does money become a God or in the place of God?
How does it become a master?
Um, because that's really what Jesus is saying.
Hey, you can't serve both God and money, but money.
Like I can't picture this, you know, taller Bill as, as a God.
Um, obviously, but that's what he's saying.
You, this is the, this is your master money then becomes what is going to
dictate what you do and how you live.
Um, and so I thought about, okay, well how can money become, um, a master?
And I thought in just for anyone, and I think overworking to have it,
you can overwork, um, so that you can have more of it, uh, you can
compromise your righteousness, uh, to save more or to have more of it.
Uh, and also our decisions and the way that we think can be ruled by money, and
that can be in subtle or obvious ways.
Like I clearly don't wake up in the morning and bow down to a dollar
bill . That would be maybe, um, aside from weird, that would be more obvious.
Uh, but also, um, it can be obvious in just how, oh, this
person's obviously ruled by money.
That's all they, you know, wanna do.
Like they, they just work and work for money.
Um, but I think it can also be in subtle ways, um, the, the little shortcuts that
we can make, um, to save a little more or to have a little more, or, um, you
know, the times when you say it's just.
It's just, and something else follows because really what it is, um, is
you're, you're making an excuse.
And so I think those are the subtle ways that I think can be a
little bit, um, the scarier side.
Um, but then there's something else.
Do I go on or do you wanna Okay.
. Um, I think also, um, in verse 14, um, you know, he calls out the
Pharisees, who he says loved money.
Uh, and then in verse uh, 15, he says, he said to them, you are the ones
who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your heart.
And you know, I, I feel like I've heard that term.
God knows my heart or God, you know, you hear that a lot.
So it was, it just stood out to me this time reading it that Jesus used that.
Like Jesus said, God knows your hearts.
But when we say it, it's a little bit of a justification.
Like, I just did something, but God knows my heart . And yet Jesus is
not saying it as a justification.
He's saying it as a judgment.
God knows your hearts and he knows, like he's, you know, he knows that you
justify yourselves in the eyes of men.
And that's a scary thought because I think we can fall into that same trap, that
when we can make excuses for ourselves and want to justify ourselves, um, and
compare ourselves to others, and, you know, um, we can kind of see it's easy
because I think we live in the society.
And so it's easy to find someone who's a lot more greedy or
who is using money unwisely.
Um, but it doesn't matter, um, if there's someone else who's, who's.
, um, making bad choices or there's someone who has more money.
That's the other thing that I think, I can not think about this
as much cuz I feel like, well, you know, I don't have a lot of money.
I'm not wealthy.
Um, and so you can find somebody else who has more wealth or who has made other bad
decisions and think God sees my heart.
But that's a scary thought, , I think, um, really because, um, if I
have to say that, like, if, if I have to say, oh, God sees my heart, then
it's probably, uh, not a good thing.
And you know, when you think about it, he's talking to the Pharisees who were
in many ways righteous, um, who believed in God, who followed the commands, or at
least appeared to follow the commands.
They gave a tithe.
Um, and so on the outside it looked like they were doing the
right things and people thought they were doing the right things.
But Jesus saw that in their hearts.
There was a love of money that wasn't good, and it just makes me wonder what's
in my heart that Jesus would call out, you know, the, the part that where you
just shared there, the personification of money, that's, that's like, that's
just deep to me because, you know, let's just go back to it, right?
Like in the first part he says there and, uh, he says, use worldly wealth.
And then you go on and now he says, don't serve God in money.
So that transition from it being a tool to now being personified, there's
something that took place, right?
It's supposed to be used, but now it's something that's worshiped and
submitted and surrendered to, and that's just why we, we wouldn't personify a
lot of things, you know what I mean?
Like, we wouldn't personify this chair.
This chair's obviously used.
To sit on.
We're like, yeah, you just use that chair.
But now if I go, Hey, let's set up a mosque to this chair, or let's set
up, you know, you'd be like, well that's, that's ridiculous, right?
What are you doing?
And so, but yet we can do that with wealth and money and not even
realizing it becomes, uh, a being as opposed to a, a thing there.
And so that, that just stood out to me.
And then that last part, what, what people highly value is detestable in God's sight.
I mean, wow, that's, it makes me think of, uh, you know, tasting something, at least
for me, uh, like tasting something that you don't like and then you got that face.
You, you know what I'm saying?
Like, I taste something that people always make fun.
Like, oh, Marcel, you're picking, you're picking.
I'm like, no, I'm selective . But then when you taste something,
you're like, mm, that's nasty, right?
You like spit it out, like, and it's like, wow, that's how God
views our view or valuing of money.
Or he can if we have this type of thing there.
So is.
Would there, would you add anything more to that idea of
personification or this last part of being detestable in God's side?
No.
Okay.
Alright, let's keep going.
Luke 16 to verse 19.
It says, there was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine
linen and lived in luxury every day.
At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to
eat what fell from the rich man's table.
Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him into Abraham's side.
The rich man also died and was buried in Hades, where he was in torment.
He looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side, so he called
him Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of
his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am an agony in this fire.
What's going on here?
It's not, it's not going to.
The next slide there.
Can you go to the next slide there, please, uh, wan.
But Abraham replied, son, remember that in your lifetime you received
good things, your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he
is comforted here and you are in agony.
And besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been set
in place so that those who wanna go from here to you cannot nor can
anyone cross over from there to us.
He answered.
Then I beg you father sin Lazarus to my family before I have five brothers.
Let him warn them so that they will not come to this place of torment.
Abraham replied, they have not, they have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them.
No, father Abraham, he said, but if someone from the dead, if someone
from the, sorry about that, but if someone from the dead, what's that?
Both of them.
Those, to them, they will repent.
He said to them, if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets,
they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.
Let's go ahead and stop right there.
Karina, what, what were some things that stood out to you?
Yeah, I think the first thing I, it reminded me, I think we talked about it in
one of the previous sermons, how the rich were considered blessed by God while the
poor, uh, were considered cursed by God.
Um, but, and so here's this rich man and he's clothed, um, in purple and fine
linen and lives in luxury every day.
And so obviously he is wealthy and only the, and not only, um, somewhat wealthy,
but very wealthy because only those, um, who had great wealth were able to
be clothed in purple and fine linen.
Um, and yet their eternal locations, um, after they die indicate.
A different story than what most people would've thought as far as, um,
who was blessed and who was cursed.
Um, and, and so here's, um, this rich man.
Um, and I think the thing that com that was, that stood out to me, uh, the most
was I read this commentary, um, and it pointed out how the rich man didn't do
anything inherently evil to Lazarus.
Like, we don't see that the rich man kicked him.
It says he, you know, there was this beggar named Lazarus covered
with sores and longing to eat wolfel from the rich man's table.
And it tells us that he was, he laid at the gate of the rich man, but it doesn't
say that the rich man did anything to him.
It didn't say that he kicked him.
It didn't say that he mocked him.
Um, it just says that he laid there and.
That's it.
Um, and so I, I think about that and I think about how, um, the flaw of
the rich man was not noticing him, um, was walking past him and ignoring him.
And that's really convicting to me because I think Wow, like there's a
lot that I can say like, oh, I didn't do this, or I didn't do that . Um, but
what, what, you know, that doesn't mean that my heart is in the right place.
Um, and you know, the rich man, um, you know, was, sorry, I
skipped my, I skipped my place.
Oh.
Um, he, he was just simply negligent.
Um, and I don't wanna be negligent.
I don't want to close my eyes or cover my ears to the needs around me, but at
the same time, that's really overwhelming because there's a lot of needs around me.
And, um, and so.
And I do believe, I live in luxury in the sense that I think everyone in America
lives in luxury for the most part.
I think as Americans, we live in luxury.
And yet, um, I, I don't wanna be , I don't wanna miss a, a
Lazarus, um, by my gate, you know?
And so it is really convicting to think about that, that what, you
know, what is, what is God putting in front of me that I could be missing?
You know, it's you, especially in America, we have, especially
in Orange County, right?
I mean, there's a lot of wealth and I know a lot of times we can think somebody else
has more money and they, they probably do.
But it's hard for us to be in touch with the needs around us.
And so we can maybe not notice the needs.
Not see the needs.
And the thing that struck me even as you're sharing is that Jesus, he, he
values faithfulness over finances.
like he lifts up Lazarus because he was faithful, but yet the rich man is the
one who had the finances, and I'm sure he, he, he did some things in his, in
his parable or some belief is a parable, some belief that, that, it's a real story
here, regardless of the case here, that we would think, wow, he has character.
He's obviously doing things to propel himself, set himself up.
Maybe his generation's up for financial success.
However, he wasn't faithful.
And so the real Jesus is not looking at our bank account and seeing
how, how, how we're successful in that realm, but how faithful we
are to him and to God's commands.
Let, let's continue going on over to Luke chapter 18 here.
Now we jump on over church.
Are you still with us here, Luke 18.
We're gonna start off in verse uh, 18.
It says, A certain ruler asked him, good teacher, what must
I do to inherit eternal life?
That's a good question to ask, isn't it?
Why do you call me?
Good Jesus, answer.
No one is good except God alone.
You know the commandments.
You should not get admit adultery.
You should not murder.
You should not steal.
You should not give false testimony.
Honor your father and mother.
All these I've kept since I was a boy.
He said, when Jesus heard this, he said to him, you still lack one thing, so
everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come follow me.
When he heard this, he became very sad because he was very wealthy.
Jesus looked at him and said, how hard is it for the rich
to enter the kingdom of God?
Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.
Those who heard this as well, who?
Who then can be saved.
Jesus replied, what is impossible with man is possible with God.
Peter said to him, we had left all we had to follow you.
Truly, I tell you, Jesus said to him, no one.
Who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters, or parents or children, for the
sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this
age and in the age to come eternal life.
And stop right there Karina, what, what, what stood out to you there?
Well, the first thing that stood out to me, uh, was that this rich man, um,
was challenged to give to the poor.
Uh, you know, it, it says, um, I lost the verse, but you saw it . Um, that,
you know, when when he, he asked him all these questions about what
he should do, he says, go sell your possessions and give to the poor.
And I thought that was interesting because obviously just a couple of chapters
before that, we see that there was a another rich man who was punished for.
Um, for, for not being kind to the poor, for neglecting the poor.
And so I thought it was interesting that Jesus then sees this rich
man and gives him the opportunity, uh, to give to the poor.
Um, but also what stood out to me is that he was, again, someone who,
on the outside, looked good, on the outside, was doing the right things.
Um, you know, he could have been, um, he could have been a member of this Sanhedrin
or the, uh, the Jewish ruling council.
Um, and here was someone again who was doing the right things on the outside.
He looked good.
Uh, and yet Jesus saw something inside of him that was lacking.
Um, and it was, it wasn't, again, you know, the, this obvious, dramatic
thing, or, uh, or this outward sin.
It was his heart.
It was, it was his love for money and.
Um, that's all.
Again, it's really convicting and it's really scary because I
don't wanna just be deceived about where my heart is before God.
And yet I think being in a society where money is highly valued, um, and not
always used the way God wants us to use it, I think it can be easy to miss that.
Um, but I do think that, uh, God has something, um, in store for us when
we, when we make, when we make sure our hearts are in the right place.
And so from, from looking at this, what I, what do you
overall see about the real Jesus?
Um, well, I think, you know, the other thing is, you know, when Jesus ends
off, he says, um, he, he's talking to the disciples and he says, , he kind
of gives them this, this promise.
Uh, I tell you the truth, Jesus said to them, no one who has left home
or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom
of God will, will fail to receive many times and much as much in this age
and in the age to come eternal life.
And that is interesting because you, we just saw that when he,
it's not finances and material possessions and money that he values.
So when he says, Hey, if you give things up, you're gonna get something much more.
It kind of circles back to chapter 16, right?
Where he says What people have high value, highly is a testable in God's sight.
And so it tells me that what Jesus is offering is so much more
than material possessions and.
I think when I think about this real Jesus, it makes me
wanna examine my own heart.
It makes me want to evaluate the way I'm using my money, um, and not just
in comparison to worldly standards, but according to Jesus and his view of money.
Um, the other thing I think it specifically makes me want to,
um, evaluate, uh, his, his call to the poor, to give to the poor.
And it makes me wanna evaluate my own, like, okay, what are,
what is God calling me to do?
Uh, you know, how is he calling me to help others?
And I wanna make sure whatever I am doing already aligns with his will.
And if there's something else that he wants me to do, I wanna make
sure that I'm, I'm seeing that and that I, again, that I'm not
missing the Lazarus at my gate.
It what, it sounds like you already allude to this question,
that this is how you, you see the real Jesus from these passages.
. And so what, what, what is your response to that?
I guess I already answered . I guess I, I skipped over.
Um, yeah, I think that's my response is that I, I want to, I, I think even praying
about that today, um, just, okay, what, there's just so much to think about.
Um, and I don't want to be naive.
Um, and I think minimize this, I think it's easy to minimize it, is what I see.
I think, I see the real Jesus doesn't value, um, doesn't he, he doesn't
have the same view as money as we do, and his use of money is not
for what we would deem appropriate.
I think when we think of money, I think we use, uh, we think of money for
our purposes to use for our benefit.
Um, and yet Jesus sees a different use of money, um, and he.
and the, and therefore the value of it is different.
Mm-hmm.
. Um, because it's no longer for our own purposes, but it's for God's purposes.
And so then I, so then my response is, okay, how do I use, uh, where is my
heart and how do I make sure that my money is being used for God's purposes?
Hmm.
And, and so that, that's one of the things that's pretty remarkable here about Jesus
and our American culture, is that we value money as, or view money as the end goal.
Yeah.
Right?
Don't we do that here in America?
Like, if we think about it, and I'm a, I'm a biggest promoter of higher education,
so come on all my college students.
Amen.
Let's go Titans.
You know what I'm saying?
Throw your tees.
All right.
And so I'm huge.
I'm a big proponent, but growing up, what did we hear?
You go to college so that you can do what?
Get a better job so that you can make more money.
So what's the end goal?
Money.
Right.
And what is the goal, or at least money is so that we can do what?
Buy things for ourselves, right?
Or we can have some form of luxury or some sort of uh, uh, uh, recreational
fund, whatever the case may be.
The end goal is money, but Jesus is saying, no, that's not the end.
That's not the goal.
It's the means, but not even to self, not even for personal selfish gains.
It's the means for kingdom purposes that money is supposed to be used for kingdom
purposes, for relationships, for building, for helping the poor and the needy.
And so that's how Jesus views, finances, wealth, possessions,
which is totally counterculture to what we experience here in America.
And we were born into this right?
I mean, even if we tried to, to figure out a different way, this is what
we were born into in our society.
I'm the biggest victim o of it and, and probably was the biggest
proponent of it in many ways as well.
But we see Jesus is like, no, no, no, no, no.
I don't live in America.
I'm not American, and this is what's righteous.
And so again, we are now called to evaluate ourselves and say, will
we reject how Jesus views money?
Will we minimize it to justify ourselves or will we submit, surrender
and adopt his view of money and apply that to our lives and our context?
And as we've been reading in this, I mean, I've just been.
I'm just like, wow.
I mean, I, I'm just challenged.
You know, I, I, I got, uh, somebody gave me some money for some, some services
that, uh, I just did as a minister.
I'm like, I, I do this for free, you know, it's okay.
And they gave me some money and the first thing I thought is,
hmm, what can I buy for myself?
And honestly, you can argue, argue.
That's not necessarily a bad thing.
Somebody, I wasn't expecting this money, you know what I mean?
But that's the way our mind works.
Money is what it's going to give me what I want or desire.
And it's not a need, but some form of luxurious living or desires that I have.
You guys get what I'm saying?
And I know we all can relate to this.
And that's what's so outstanding here and so challenging as an
American is, whoa, how am I going to react and respond to this?
Because a real Jesus, he would spend his money differently than
we would, and that's challenging.
The real Jesus would view money differently than we do.
And again, this is a hard, sobering truth.
But this is also freeing of us to not be slaves to money now be slaves
to our culture and society where we can live the way God wants us
to, and invest in kingdom purposes.
And see kingdom purposes, realize that our lives.
Amen.
And so I wanna go ahead and give us here, uh, a couple quick action,
step and prayer for the week.
We wanna have communal action steps and a communal prayer of the week here.
And so the first one is to reflect on your view of money and then share
your reflection with the friend.
So a lot of us, we get together, we call these discipling times.
And so to go ahead and reflect, you know, what is my view?
Does it line with Jesus?
Is it the same as Jesus?
Or has it become, has it, has money become personified?
Is it a master in my life?
Do I have the same money?
And if not, if I don't have the same view of Jesus about money,
what am I gonna do about that?
You know, not just reflect on it, but what am I gonna do after my reflection?
But then share that with a friend there so we can have some good dialect and
possibly some healthy accountability.
And then here's the communal prayer, as if we could all pray every day this week
that our church can have the same view and value about money that Jesus has.
So for the next seven days here, let's all pray for each other that we
can not only take this individually, but collectively live a radical
life in our context in society.
We have a radical view that is not the norm here in
Orange County, but it's godly.
And again, it's the real Jesus being not only known, followed,
but shown in our society.
Amen.
And so, We have to ask ourselves this question, and I'm so grateful that
the real Jesus does this, that, that he challenges our worldviews and he
challenges something that's really deep and embedded into the culture and
fabric here in Orange County here, and so that we can make sure that we view
money properly, that it's a means it's not a master, that we can go ahead and
have the same values that we can use it for kingdom treasures, not to obtain as
many worldly treasures for ourselves.
Let's use money to meet, needs to help people, and for kingdom purposes.
Let's close out here in Luke 16, verse 13.
It says, no one can serve two masters.
Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted
to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and money.
The Pharisees who love money hurt all this and were sneering at Jesus.
He said to them, you are the one to justify yourselves in the eyes of
others, but God knows your heart.
What people Highly valuable.
What people highly value.
What people value highly is detestable in God's sight.
The real Jesus wasn't American.
Thank you so much.