If Jesus Looked at Your Budget | Pastor Ken

This week Pastor Ken starts our new series Rearranged with a message about how the way we handle money often reveals what we value, even more than our words do.

He talks honestly about why money feels so personal, why it can make us uncomfortable, and how our spending, saving, and giving patterns give a window into what matters most to us. Ken also looks at what Jesus teaches about treasure, priorities, and the idea of “storing up” things that actually last.

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Transcript

0:16

- Hey, this is Phil Kal, lead pastor at Hope City Church. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. My prayer is that this helps and encourages you, gives you some practical ways to live out your faith and ultimately fills you with hope. Enjoy the message.- We are starting a short, uh, two week series called Rearranged. You know, we arrange things in our life according to what we value, and if how things are arranged don't reflect that, then we rearrange them. And so let me ask you kind of a difficult question right off the top, and it's this, does the way that you've arranged your life reflect what you value most? I have a friend of 15 years and he treasures his wife, no doubt about it. But there is a, a stretch of a season in his life where his schedule was so busy and life was so hectic that just over time, him and his wife just began to drift apart. It's a sad reality. And so he had a choice. Keep going or rearrange things in order to come in alignment with what matters most. And of course, he did that. And so I wanna ask you again, does the way that you've arranged your life reflect what you value most? That's a really, really good question. But it's a secondary question because the first question is, well, what do you value most? You know, people are complicated. It's difficult to peel away the layers of motivation in our life. Uh, it's difficult to understand sometimes why we do what we do. It's hard to isolate, right? That heart, greatest desire. It's like, how do you find out what you value most? It's a lot simpler than you might think. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars and years on psychotherapy. You don't have to book an Airbnb in the woods and do you know, a week of solitude? It's way simpler than that. How do you discover your heart's greatest desire today, I wanna talk to you about money, money, boo money, anything but money. I love talking about money because it makes people squirm and the squirminess tells us something, right? It's not that I'm so demented that I just enjoy making people uncomfortable. That's not it. The squirminess tells us something. It tells us that we're, we're touching on something that is sacred and we're here today because we care about things that are sacred. If all you wanted was simply a feel good experience, there are plenty of seasonal Hallmark movies that you could take in. I wouldn't recommend any of them, but you could do that. You have that option. At church, we talk about the things that matter most because the Bible talks about the things that matter most. And we teach the Bible. And so we talk about hard things. We talk about eternity. We talk about evil and suffering. We talk about death. We talk about sex, and we talk about money. Now, a common, uh, stat that talks about money in the Bible is that there's about 2000 references to finances in scripture. Comparatively, there's about 500 on prayer and 500 on faith. So we can say that quantitatively speaking, it shows us that money matters in the Bible. So here is my controversial thesis. It's controversial. Not because I'm wrong, 'cause I'm not. It's controversial because you are going to wish I was wrong. And the reason why I know that is because I wish that I was wrong. So is everybody ready to be offended? Okay, here's my thesis. How you arrange your money is the most reliable indicator of what matters most to you. How you arrange your money is the most reliable indicator on what's going on at the deepest levels. I was reading a book on worship this week from Pastor Sam Storms and he said this story that I thought I'd share. He said, my dad was a banker for the first 35 years of his working life. He often said to me, give me five minutes in a man's checkbook and I'll tell you everything that you need to know about him. I'll tell you whether he loves God, his wife and his children. I'll tell you whether he really believes the Bible. I'll tell you that what he values and what he hates and what he believes and how he spends his time, again, how you arrange your money is the most reliable indicator on what matters most. Of course, it's not the only indicator we understand that, right? Again, our calendars of course reveal what matters most. Our thoughts, our internal self-talk, right? That says something, right? Our search history definitely is a good indicator on what matters to us. And so we're in agreement. Like all of these things compounded, yeah, they all kinda show a picture. So why am I sort of hung up on this money idea? And there's two reasons. Number one, because you are hung up on this money idea. Almost no one here goes to work because it's super fun., right? You go because you have bills. Almost no one here lives where they live because it's their dream house. In their dream neighborhood. You live there because it's what the bank said you can afford. Most of us wear what we wear because it's the only thing that fit us on the discount rack. Money determines how we spend our Saturday nights. It determines how we're gonna spend our retirement. It's like, like it or not, money shapes our choices and our choices shape our lives. So I realize Christians hate to admit this, but it's true. Money is really important to us. And so how we spend it becomes an incredibly accurate indicator on what matters most. If I showed you my bank account, you would quickly see, I care little for beauty products, little for beauty products, speed stick and toothpaste. Those are the two things I spend. Now, if my wife has specialty facial cream there, I'm gonna use it. I'm not an animal, but I'm not gonna buy it , okay? I'm not gonna buy it. But if you looked at my bank account, you would see that I spend a whole way too much money on coffee. You'd see that. Here's the thing, bank statements don't lie. And so that's the first reason. But the second reason that my thesis is true, that that how we arrange our money is the most reliable indicator of what matters most to us. The real reason why that's true is because Jesus said this. Jesus said, where your treasure is there, your heart is also and make a mistake. Jesus is not talking about anything other than our finances. It's not a euphemism for your time. It's not a euphemism for your talent. He's talking about money. Where your treasure is, is where your heart will be also. So today I wanna look at a little bit of an expanded teaching from Jesus in, in Matthew six on money. It takes about 30 seconds to read. That's it. He doesn't mince words, but it would take the best Bible teachers 30 minutes just to intro this topic. Take the best Bible scholars 30 days to write an article on this and the rest of us about 30 years to mess about, only to realize we should have just trusted Jesus in the first place. What he says is true. So Jesus says this, this in Matthew six says, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves. Treasure in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy. And where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also, no one can servee two masters. Either you'll 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. So the question right out of the text is, well, how are you storing up your treasure? In other words, how are you arranging your wealth regardless of how little you have or how much you have? That doesn't seem to be a concern to Jesus here, which is important because when we talk about money, the emotion that rises to the top and almost all of us, it's the same. It's the squirminess that we feel. It's this one emotion, it's guilt, right? If you're poor, you feel guilty because you think you have nothing meaningful to offer. If you're rich, you could feel guilty because you think I could probably be doing more. And if you're somewhere in the middle, you feel guilty because you wanna do more. You just don't know how to do it. Things are tight. But no matter kind of who you are, we all wrestle with this version of I'm not doing enough. So two passages came to my mind as I was reflecting on that feeling. And the first comes from Mark 12. It says this, Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple Treasury. So sounded like Jesus just hanging out in the lobby watching everyone at the interact machine. , it's funny, many rich people threw in large amounts, but a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents, calling his disciples to him. Jesus said, truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything. All she had to live on. Jesus here is honoring not, not the amount given that that doesn't seem to matter at all, but but the heart behind the amount, Jesus is saying, minuscule gifts given in faith can move mountains if you're poor. You need to understand that your poverty does not disqualify you from generosity. Your poverty does not disqua disqualify you from dignity or kingdom impact. It doesn't. Don't let the lies of Satan rob you of the joy of generosity because you are poor. The other passage that comes to mind from the Apostle Paul, he says this in Second Corinthians chapter nine. He says, remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver and God is able to bless you abundantly. So that in all things and at all times having all thats you need, you'll abound in every good work. Now, this is fairly obvious. A farmer who scatters a lot of seed is gonna have a, a more abundant crop than a farmer who scatters little seed. This makes sense, but regardless of the attitude of the farmer, it doesn't affect the seed, right? If they have a smile on their face or if they do it, begrudgingly seed is gonna do what seed is gonna do. But Paul says it's different when we're giving to God, our attitude matters. Yeah, God can bless a gift given out a duty. Of course he can, but he wants to bless the gift and the giver. Okay, wives, in this room just for you for a second. Answer me this. Would you rather your husband go to the flower store and just outta the overflow of his love, have no idea about flowers, but just buy the biggest, best bouquet he can, just 'cause he loves you so much? Or would you rather your husband go to the flower store, buy something a little bit more economical, have a little card in there that says, Hey, this is for you. I didn't want to do this. You owe me , right? It's like, well, the first, like of course we want the first, of course there's, there's probably a bunch of women here that says, I don't care as long as I get flowers right, you don't even care. God can bless a gift given out of a half to attitude, but a gift given out of a want to attitude blesses both the gift and the giver. So he wants to bless you. This is like Bible, like Christianity 1 0 1, that we actually, we come, we fail to, to integrate into our life. God wants to bless you. He does rich or poor or somewhere in between. It's like God wants to bless you. Now, maybe for the rich in this room, um, I wanna double down on this for you. God wants to bless you even more than you've already been blessed. If you could believe that He wants to bless you all the way through, all the way through, not just this season of your life, not just for your kids and not just for your grandkids. He wants to bless you all the way through to eternity. What a shame it would be to be rich on earth and to be poor in heaven. The Bible speaks about rewards in eternity. Again, this is something we don't think about very often. When we think about heaven, we sort of think of this like divine communism, right? Everyone gets the same, right? We're buying kids for, we're buying gifts for our, our kids. And even last night, my wife and I were talking and we have to make sure everything's the same. They will know, they will know. We think about it in heaven, right? That that everything is gonna be exactly, everyone gets the same portion, the same experience. It's exactly the same. That's not the way the Bible talks about heaven. See, faith in Jesus Christ grants us entry into God's eternal kingdom. But it's our faithfulness, uh, for Jesus Christ. Now that determines our experience in God's eternal kingdom. So the Bible tells us that the rewards of heaven are greater responsibility, greater honor and greater joy. Now let me guard against any misunderstanding here.'cause even though the Bible does absolutely speak of rewards in heaven, you need to know that each person's joy will be full and complete in the presence of Jesus. Yet we have to hold intention. The Bible also speaks of rewards in heaven. Now, right now, there's something happening in our world called the Great Wealth Transfer. The great wealth transfer. What's happening at an unprecedented rate is there's wealth transferring from generation to generation. The baby boomers are leaving their wealth to their children and their grandchildren. This is the biggest shift of wealth the world has ever seen. But in the unseen, every act of generosity, every gift given in worship, every dollar that nobody sees and uh, no one sees and no one's applauds, that is being transferred ahead of you into eternity that is being stored up in heaven. And when we are in the presence of Jesus, the redistribution is going to shock us. Those who were last here can be first there. And so we don't store up regret in heaven. We store up treasure in heaven. This is what Jesus is saying. This is the kingdom people way. This is how his followers arrange their money. It matters how you arrange it. Now, Jesus is not being impractical. He's not saying don't spend money on anything that isn't spiritual. That's not what it's telling us. He's not saying don't have a mortgage. He's not saying don't you know, invest in your kids' schooling. No, Jesus is being very practical. One of the rules of investing is that you have to start early. Start early because it's not about timing the market, it's about time in the market. And so worldly investors know that you ought to invest with the long term time horizon. Worldly investors understand that. And Jesus is like, yeah. So why would you only invest with 30 or 40 or 50 years in mind, invest with eternity in mind. How do you do that? Or what does that even look like? What does it even look like to store treasures up in heaven? What does that mean? It means that you arrange your money in a way that brings God glory. That's what it means to store up your treasure, that you arrange your financial picture in a way that brings God glory. It's like, well, what brings God glory? What brings God glory? God is most glorified when we treasure him above all other treasure. That's when God is most glorified when we live as if Jesus Christ is our greatest treasure, that it makes all our other treasure look like pocket change. God is most glorified and we treasure many things, good things. I treasure my time with my wife from about eight 30 to bedtime, which is like nine 30 for me. I love that time. It's beautiful. I love and I treasure coffee with a good friend, especially if they're paying. I treasure. I treasure that they're beautiful things. These are graces of God that we are meant to treasure appropriately. Augustine spoke of ordered loves and what he is talking about is that sin is not just loving bad things, it's loving good things too much. It's loving good things above Jesus Christ. David in the Psalm says this, whom have I in heaven? But you and Earth has nothing I desire besides you. Paul says this, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. Jesus tells this really short parable in Matthew 13, and he says, the kingdom of heaven, what it's like when God rules and reigns completely, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. And when a man found it, he hid it again and then in his joy went and sold all that he had and bought that field Hope city. My prayer is that Jesus Christ would be your absolute greatest treasure. That your heart would burn red hot for your relationship with him and his work in the world. And if it's not burning red hot, then you might be trying to serve two masters. You might be trying to serve both God and money, but you can not do it. You can't do it. You can't serve both, but you can use your money to serve God. See, money is not the enemy. Money is not evil. Money is not unspiritual. Money is a tool that we use to worship God with. And so my prayer is that you would leverage what is so valuable to you, your money for what is most precious to you, Jesus Christ. And so practically like what does this look like? It's like, well, what am I supposed to do? Then? Here's just a smattering of ideas. There's more. But this is what came to my mind. Invest in Bible colleges. Every dollar there is a seed that plants a hundred lifetime harvesters. It looks like backing boots on the ground, gospel working ministries here in Edmonton. Places like Youth Rise and Kids on Track, and Shiloh Youth Ranch and Adera and the pregnancy care center and neighbors and newcomers amidst many more back them it looks like blessing global workers and missionaries who go into difficult places in the world and plant churches where no one has heard the name of Jesus translating scripture into new languages, raising their kids in hardship so that other people can hear the good news that Jesus Christ loves them. That's what it looks like to store up treasure in heaven. It looks like fueling your local church. The primary way that God's work advances in the world is through the local church. And so when you give to your local church, you are glorifying God because every dollar that you give is one more chance for a child to hear that God loves them. One more chance for a youth to give their life to Jesus Christ. One more chance for a young adult to gather in this place and worship Jesus unashamedly. It's one more chance for a marriage that is on life support, a chance to breathe again. One more chance for a family in our community who's grieving because of a loss to come in and experience the comfort of of the Holy Spirit. One more chance for someone who comes in with a hungry belly to receive a food hamper. One more chance for someone to, to get in the baptismal tank and declare that they have a new life because of the glory of God. That's what it looks like to store up your treasure in heaven to close. I want to be very practical, really practical because even if you're with me this far, even if you're like, yeah, Jesus said in 30 seconds, I understood now you've wasted 20 minutes of my life. Okay, even if you're with me and you're like, I got it. It's like it's hard. This when the rubber meets the road actually doing this is really difficult. And so the question would be like, well, how do I do this? How do I right now where I'm at, store up treasure in heaven? How do I be obedient to this? How do I create alignment in my life? Uh, I'm going to say something that is so simple and so practical that you might be tempted to dismiss it as unspiritual. Don't do that. Your spiritual life is not a vibe. Your spiritual life is not energy. That's new ageism. That is not Christianity. In Christianity, we make real life on the ground earthly decisions that bless and are obedient to Jesus Christ. Jesus never separated the spiritual from the remarkably ordinary. 5,000 people were fed because one boy offered up a small lunch. Okay, so how do you store up treasures in heaven? The worldly pattern that we also adopt, generally speaking for how we, how we arrange our money is, is three phases. The first is we spend, then the next phase is we save. And then third and last we give, right? We get our, we get our paychecks, we get our money, and we spend first, and then we save second. And then if there's anything left over after the saving, which there never is, right, we give. That's sort of the pattern. Now the Bible flips that pattern on its head. It's like, no, no, no, no kingdom people, we actually give first, save second, hold your breath. Okay? And we spend third. That's difficult. We give first. God always gets our first, not our last. God always gets our choice portions not our scraps. Proverbs says this, honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops, then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine. The first hearers of this would've understood that the first fruits means you give to the Lord before the harvest is even in, before you even know if there's anything left for you. They would've heard it that way. And then the scripture tells us, then your barn will be overflowing. Now, this isn't give God a hundred dollars and you can expect a thousand dollars check in the mail. Okay? That's not how it works. God is saying this, if you put me first, I promise you I will take care of you. That's what it's saying. The Bible is saying that those who give to the Lord first are the kind of people that God continues to resource because they channel his generosity appropriately. That's what it's saying. Now, undoubtedly, this is going to happen to me this week. Someone is going to email me. Someone's gonna comment on our Instagram. That's Old Testament. I dunno why I said it so meanly. Maybe they'll remember that night. That's Old Testament, not New Testament. That's always an objection that that pastoral pastors will hear about this. Whenever church speaks on any sort of financial thing, whether it's giving to the poor, whether it's offerings, whether it's tithing, right? There's always a handful of people who, who raise a little bit of a stink because they, they think that the New Testament puts a, like pumps the brakes a little bit on Old Testament standards of generosity. Firstly, I cannot wait till next week'cause Pastor Phil is gonna just dismantle that so quickly because in the New Testament, the Old Testament is the floor of generosity. If you don't, if you think that the Old Testament is too generous, you just wait till you get into the new. Secondly, uh, Jesus right after telling us that where our treasure is there, our heart is also, he continues talking about money, about people who are worried about how they're gonna pay for things, for food and for clothing. And he says this again, relating to money. He says, but seek first his kingdom and all his righteousness in everything that we do, including our finances and all of these things we'll be giving to you as well. So as Christians, that's our pattern. We give first God gets our choice, not our scraps. Then we save, we save a second. Saving is not hoarding. Saving is ordering your life wisely. Proverbs again says this, the wise store up choice, food and olive oil, but the fool gulps theirs down. I've never met someone who gulps down olive oil, but I understand what the Bible is saying here. just like a lubricated esophagus. I could use that right now. Actually, proverb six says this, go to the an you sluggard consider its ways and be wise. It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. See, savings allows us to be prepared for the seasons that we cannot see in order, that we can continue to give freely, see, savings, support, generosity. It does not compete with it. So we give first, we save second and we spend third. Now, here is my best pastoral wisdom, which some of you're gonna love and some of you're going to hate. Okay, I'm gonna split the room here, but here's the best that I have when it comes to spending. Okay? Have fun. Have fun. I was gonna say go nuts. But a pastor who is more mature than me told me not to. Okay? . So I changed it to have fun. Have fun, enjoy your life with those who you love most. That honors the Lord. Ecclesiastes five says this, moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil, this is a gift of God. If you're here, it's not everybody, but if you're here and God has given you wealth and the ability to enjoy it, enjoy it for the glory of God. No guilt. No guilt, enjoy choice food. Enjoy good drink. Enjoy traveling. God's beautiful world. Enjoy German engineered things. , enjoy it. If you've prioritized giving first and saving second when it comes to spending, okay, have fun. Buy the face cream. Okay, buy the face cream . Now, one flashing red caveat to this is of course our debt, right? Stay clear of that debt does not honor the Lord. It just doesn't. Scripture is so plain about that. I know it's normal, but it's not normal in for kingdom people, okay? It's abnormal. It's not something that we want to do or pursue. And so with laser focus, we take care of that. We have to take care of that. Um, and we, we guard against it creeping back into our life. But if you're giving first and you're saving second when it comes to spending, and if you're clear of debt, it's like, have fun slash go nuts, . Now here's uh, general advice for you to start. Okay? If you're looking to look how much, where does it all go? Here's some general advice. This isn't bible. The bible does not give us exact amounts. Okay? Here's, here's something that, that I tried to practice when I was younger and it, it's changed since then. But it was 10% goes to giving, 20% goes to saving and 70% goes to the rest. Okay? That those are, those are numbers that for some of you, you can do. For some of you, you cannot do that. That is not gonna happen. But it might be something you could work towards in the future, okay? That could be years down the road, but 10% giving 20% saving, 70% goes to the rest. Again, just take those numbers and arrange them in a way that you are convinced brings God glory. That's the idea here. But regardless, to do it in order, in order to arrange our wealth in a way that glorifies God, you know what? You're gonna need a budget. Boo , you thought you were coming to church today and all you got was this lousy temu version. Financial seminar. , listen, a budget isn't boring. A budget isn't just a spreadsheet. A budget is a theological document that shows you how you've arranged your life for what matters most. Your budget is a theological document that arranges your life towards what matters most. And so this week, your next step is this. If you do not have a budget to make one in a way that glorifies God, if you do have a budget, your job this week is to take a second look.'cause you might have to rearrange things in order to glorify God. Let me read this one last time from Jesus. He says this, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moss and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasure in heaven where moss and vermin do not destroy. And where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there, your heart will be. Also, we're all gonna stand before the presence of king Jesus. And I want us to be able to say with our words and our wallet, Jesus Christ, you were my greatest treasure. Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you that you have dealt with the sacred parts of our life, Lord. And money is something that we hold onto so tightly. There's such a grip of it over our life. There's so much fear about it, a lack of security, a lack that will have enough. There's also sometimes greed where we just want more because we're trying to fill something that, that we're finding outside of a relationship with you. But Lord, as people who are trying to follow you, I pray that your Holy Spirit would just enter right now for all those who desire to be filled with God, that your Holy Spirit would come and just reset us. That our posture towards you with our money would not be greed, would not be hoarding, but be open to the work of God. Lord, we want to be people who invest with a long, the longest term outlook into eternity. Lord, we do not wanna store regrets but treasure. And so I pray that you would speak to each individual, Lord, if there's a fence, Lord, that that would be covered by your grace Lord. And you would teach each person, whether it's in the quietness of their prayer life or just on their car ride home, Lord, what you're asking them to do in this area. And so, Lord, we do not want guilt to be how we operate with our money, but freedom and with joy, that seems to be what your, what your word is telling us. Our posture ought to be with money, joy, not because of what we can get with it. Because what we can give you with it. And so, Lord, we trust you in fresh new way. And so, Lord, take our wallets, Lord, we trust you with everything in our life, including our money. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. I know for some people that's a hard prayer to pray. Um, I I I get that. I fully get that. We're gonna have some of our team up the front left if you just come like prayer over maybe your financial situation that you're going through. If you are here today and you do not know Jesus Christ, but you do want to know Jesus Christ, you're like, what is this greatest treasure talk? We have a little, uh, uh, dis uh, disc on your seat back that you can tap that can take you to a next step. Or again, you can talk with one of our pastors up front. Come back next week. 'cause Pastor Phil is gonna compliment this talk with another angle on stewardship. So we'll see you next week. Thanks for being here.