Fearless, Imagine Life Without Fear III

Well, hi everybody. I hope that you're doing well. It's great to be with you. Again, if you don't know me, my name is Kent, one of the pastors here. Today, we turn our attention to a fear that many of us have. It's the fear of not having enough. And with just saying that, we could go so many different directions today. Like the fear of not having enough education, or skill, or experience. The fear of not having enough influence. And for some of you out there, the fear of not having enough sweater vests to be like Pastor Scott. Right? Some of you have this fear. We could go so many different directions today, but for our purposes, we will focus on what it is I bet you're assuming we're going to focus on. It's the fear of not having enough money, or the stuff that it can buy. There are different degrees, I think, of this fear, depending on where you are in the stages of life. Whatever circumstances life has brought you. Maybe you're here, you're a high school student, and maybe you're afraid that you won't have enough, your family won't have enough, to get you to college. Maybe you're a college student, you're afraid that you won't have enough money to stay enrolled next semester. Maybe you're a young professional now, and with newfound responsibilities, you have found new debt. Right? And you are wondering, you're worrying about if you're going to be able to pay it off at the end of each month. Some of you in here, you're parents, and you are wondering if you're going to have enough to pay for diapers, for dance lessons, for their degrees. Think about me for just one second. I have three daughters. How in the world am I going to pay for three weddings? Think about this. How am I going to do this? So I'm just going to speak to the Oakland community for just one second. If there's a doctor in one of the Oakland services, give me a call. If you have three boys, we could work something out. That's all I'm saying. Some of you in here, you are an empty nester now, and you worry whether or not your son or daughter, if they will make enough, if they'll have enough, to keep it that way because you don't want them to move back in with you. Right? Maybe you are a baby boomer, and you are worried if you'll have enough to retire and keep the lifestyle that you currently have. Maybe you're on the other side, and you're retired. You are worried if you will have enough to last until the end. See, maybe this fear of not having enough, maybe it doesn't lead you to worry or to fear maybe so much, but maybe you play the what-if game. Anybody out there, maybe you play this game. If I make this choice at this current salary, this income, what if that salary, what if that income goes down? What if it goes away altogether? What if I lose my job? What then? What if the car breaks down? What if the furnace goes? What if, what if, what if? We wonder about, we worry about, we scenario to death about money. Money. We fear that we will not have enough of it. And there are some ironic things about this fear of not having enough. Listen for just one second and think about these things. When I have the fear of not having enough, and I get a little, is that enough? When I have the fear of not having enough, and I get a lot, is that enough? See, what amount then is enough to satisfy us? What is it? If we survey our culture, when you get enough, it's not enough. So, we always want more than enough. For many of us with this fear, another ironic thing is this. What we fear the most has become what we trust the most. Did you hear that? What we fear the most is what we have come to trust the most. What keeps us in the prison is what we've come to trust the most. The funny thing is our money says in God we trust, but we trust our money. So, we trust that our money will deliver the goods for us. We trust ourselves then because we're the ones who produce the money. We're the ones who have the job that gets the paycheck, that gets the bills paid. We trust ourselves and our money. But there's only one problem with that, according to the Scriptures. The Bible clearly teaches that we cannot, we should not, we dare not trust money. Because it is here today and it is gone tomorrow. And the same is true about us. We cannot take money with us when we die. We can't take the stuff with us when we die. So, if all we do is focus our lives on solely making enough money, all we're going to end up with is a really nice casket. Think about that. See, I believe that this is why Jesus tells us this parable in Luke 12. If you have your Bibles with you, you can follow along with me. You can take out your North Way notes. You can follow along on the screens. We are in Luke 12, starting with verse 16. And he told them this parable. The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He had a good year, right? He thought to himself, what shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. And then he said, well, this is what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. And there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy. Eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, you fool. This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you've prepared for yourself? And Jesus said, this is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself, but is not rich towards God. And I want us to see something very specific in here today because there are some of us that are kind of checking out right now because you heard that this is about a rich man, and you're saying, oh, that's not me. I'm not rich. Hold on. Need I remind you that you are among the richest of the world. If you make more than $2.50 a day, then you are among the wealthiest on the planet. The rich man, therefore, is not condemned for being rich. Jesus doesn't criticize him for building bigger barns. God does not call him a fool because he has enough. Oh, no, Jesus doesn't go there. He addresses, though, a deeper issue. This is an issue of trust. This is an issue of whom we trust. Do I trust God or do I trust me? This is an issue of where do I turn when I have the fear of not having enough. Do I turn to myself or do I turn to God? And that's why God calls this guy a fool, not because he was rich but because of who he trusted, not because he built bigger barns but his perspective on those barns. That's why he calls him a fool. Let's look at how the rich man sees his possessions. If you take a look at that passage that we just read, and as we do this, let me ask us this, is this how we see our possessions? So if I'm correct, it says this, I, I, my, I, I, my, I, my, my, I, my. That's how he sees his possessions. No room for others, no room for God. And Max Lucado writes in his book, Fearless, is that his error was not that he planned, but rather that his plans didn't include God. Jesus criticized not the man's affluence but his arrogance, not the presence of personal goals but the absence of God in these goals. So when you and I have this fear, what we tend to do is this, we try to take it upon ourselves to accumulate as much wealth as we possibly can to make us feel secure, right? Since we fear losing our jobs, since we fear losing health care, since we, since we fear losing our benefits, what we do is we clamp down even tighter on what it is that we have to make it enough for us. So therefore, we trust our money and our stuff rather than God. But here's the interesting thing about it. The more and more that I trust my money, the more and more I step into the prison of the fear of not having enough because then it's all about me. It's on my shoulders. But here's the thing. Here's the good news, friends. God has given us a key to this freedom. He has given us a key of freedom to this fear of not having enough. It unlocks the prison cell that many of us find ourselves in. This key to freedom may seem so backwards to so many. This key to freedom may seem so ludicrous to us. But this key of freedom is basically this. It's to recognize that everything that we have is God's, not ours. It's God's. Everything that we have comes from God. And the key is to recognize that. And then the key is to basically trust God then that he will provide our every need because we understand that it's his money, not mine. So therefore, he has to provide for me. So with that little shift in our perspective comes this freedom from fear because now it's on God. It's his money, not mine. We're going to trust that he's going to provide for us. So this fear that you and I have is really a fear of trust. Who do I trust? Philippians 4.19 says this, Notice, it doesn't say according to how hard I work, according to the job that I'm going to get, according to how much time I invest. No, no, no. It's according to his riches. His riches. And so I want to take some time and I want to introduce you to a couple. Their name is the Beatty Kiefers, a part of our church here at North Way. And they are continually being freed from this fear of not having enough. And so I thought I'd introduce them to you so that they could tell their story. Let's take a look together. Hi, my name is Eric Beatty Kiefer. Hi, I'm Melissa Beatty Kiefer. It was about 10 years ago. We were in a situation in our lives where I used to coach for years. I owned a business. I had sold my business. I thought it was a good business deal. And back in 1999 is when the business deal went south. And I was responsible for a lot of debt. And what had happened is when we had sold the gym, my wife was still working part time. I had no job. We had how many children did we have? We had two at that point and actually one on the way. That's right. So two and a half children. We just kind of hit a point in the road where we ended up with pretty much nothing. Like Eric said, everything was gone. It was a pretty sticky situation there for a little while. So basically now we're at zero. We can't get any lower. Well, you have $34 left in your account and that's it. And then what you're doing late night is when you put your 8-year-old to sleep and you sneak upstairs into her bedroom and all she has, she has a 2-foot high penny jar. And because I had no money, I would go in and I would steal her pennies out of her jar and I would take them downstairs and I'd put them on the floor. And I would sit in a straddle and with tears pouring out of my eyes, just dripping all over the pennies, I would wrap enough pennies that I could take it and go get food so the kids would have food the next day and not know what was going on. And there was a friend of mine, his name is Keith. He actually talked to me one day and said, Eric, do you tithe? And I'm like, no. And he said, Eric, what is $34 going to do for you? He said, if that's all you have, he says, why don't you have faith and give it to the church and let God take over for you. Let him handle your finances. And I tell you what, when I heard that at that point in time, I was apprehensive because, again, I was still trying to do it my way. I was the one that got me into the mess. I'm the one that's got to get me out of the mess. Well, part of the mess that we got ourselves into is we had no food. We ran out of pennies. But I was told about the food pantry here at North Way. I would fill up everything I possibly could. They're just like, take a boxful, take two boxfuls, don't worry about it. Nobody knew about this, but North Way did. When I turned around and I wrote the check for $34, knowing that that's it, and I'm driving home, I'm excited, but I'm scared because now what do I do? I don't have anything. I don't have enough money for gas in the car. She had a little bit of money coming in. During this whole time, I was interviewing for different jobs. I went for a job interview, and I get this phone call. They wanted to offer me the job. From that point on, everything changed. Everything changed. God is faithful in his promises. We were obedient in doing what we needed to do, and we stepped out. He took care of what we needed and provided for us. It was a relief. Things still were a struggle. We were behind in many, many, many things, but just knowing that we knew where our source was, and it wasn't from any job that we could ever have or any outside thing. It was the Lord providing for us everything that we needed. That's an absolutely incredible story of how God provided what the Beatty Keefers needed. Did anybody else catch this, though? This whole week, as I have been looking at that video, did anybody else notice that when he asked his wife how many kids they had, he's like, how many kids did she say? We had two and one on the way, and then he turned. He was like, two and a half kids. I've been cracking up all week at that. Two and a half kids. Anyway, sorry. With this video, with their story, I run a major risk of you hearing the wrong thing. So let me just be blunt. Do not hear that if I give money to God, I'm going to get a job. That's not what it's about. What it's about is this, is that this story goes to show that Eric and Melissa trusted God to provide, and he did. And notice what she said at the very end of the video. She said exactly this. It was the Lord providing everything that we needed. Exactly. She didn't say everything that we wanted. She didn't say, oh, we got the house. We hit the lottery, baby. No, no, no, no. It was the Lord provided everything that we needed. Which now brings us to Jesus' explanation of the parable of the rich fool to his followers. This is kind of the takeaway that he wants his followers to understand about that parable. So it says this. Jesus said to his disciples, verse 22, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap. They have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds. Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life? The answer there is no one. So since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin, yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all of his splendor. Solomon was dressed to the nines all the time. Smartest man alive, the richest man alive, he was not dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, talking about that's how they used for baking in that time, the grass of the field was kind of a kindling. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith? And do not set your heart on what you will eat, on what you will drink. Do not worry about it. For the pagan world, what's the pagan world? The pagan world is the rich fool. People who have no regard for God whatsoever in any of their plans, in any of their life. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your father, God knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. And then I love this portion of Scripture where Jesus basically, this is the only time in the Scriptures where he speaks to his followers with this language. Such tenderness. Listen to these words. He says, Do not be afraid, little flock. Somehow that brings me such comfort. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. The entire kingdom. So he says, Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out. A treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted. Where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, this is the famous verse, right? Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Now the first portion of Jesus' explanation of this, we kind of get this. We understand it. What he's saying to us, bottom line, do you trust God to meet your needs? Or do you trust yourself? Do you trust your money to meet your needs? The second portion of this explanation is a little bit more of a challenge for us. But listen, it's another key to the freedom from the fear of not having enough. So listen up. It comes down to this. It's a definition of needs. What do we really need in this life? Jesus here only mentions three things. Three things. Food, water, and clothes. That's all he mentions. So with that in mind, let me ask all of us, myself included. Do we need that next thing that we want to buy? Do we really need to raise the standard of our living with the next raise in our paycheck? Do we really need that? Do we really need, you fill in the blank. Do we really need it? See, what Jesus does is he challenges his followers to adjust their lifestyles so that they can be as generous as possible. That's what he desires. He's saying that the way of the kingdom is to trust God with it all. Trust him completely with it all. Work hard, yes, and get what your family needs. I'll provide that for your family. They will have what they need, but then you have the opportunity to give the rest away. This is an incredible opportunity is what Jesus is saying. Craig Keener, in his commentary on this passage, says this. Jesus nowhere prohibits possessions, but he teaches priorities that challenge his followers' lifestyles. Whereas people in their needs matter, yes, but possessions beyond one's needs is worthless. It's worthless. Daryl Bach, in his commentary, writes this. In other words, how we use our resources communicates our values. If we invest in earthly possessions, we show that we care about things. If we invest in care for people, we radiate our love for others. And at North Way, we want to invest in care for people. That's what we want to be about. We want to radiate God's love for those people, and we have a very specific mission for all people. It's this. We want to be a church that frees people to follow Jesus. That's what we're about. And that's exactly what Jesus was talking about when he said, invest in those heavenly treasures. Invest in that kind of stuff where thieves cannot steal, that moths cannot destroy. Invest in that type of thing. So here at North Way, we work hard to provide ministries that will result in freedom from things like addictions. We work hard to provide freedom in such ways for rocky marriages, for failing marriages, freedom from pornography, freedom from all kinds of financial strongholds. There is a ministry here at North Way that specifically gives people practical tools to be able to climb out of debt so that you can be free to follow Jesus. Not because God needs your money. So that you can be free. We will never ever tire of helping people to be free to follow Jesus Christ. So I want to help all of us. I seriously want to help all of us, myself included. My wife and I, we continue to be freed from this fear of not having enough. And I know I run the risk of, oh, hey, look at me. No, listen, it's not about that. Sometimes you question whether the guys who get up on this stage are actually practicing what they preach. And I'm about to tell you that I do. I practice what I preach. Years ago when Erica and I stepped out to plant a new church, we watched God provide for us in ways that I could never imagine. All the way from a lawnmower to a house. I wouldn't be able to have the time to tell you all the stories, but I'll just tell you what. God provided for us in ways. And so what we desire to do is to show God that we trust Him with everything that we've got. So we do. We show God this. And here's how we do it. We tithe. What does that mean? We give it back to God. We give 10% of what is given to us back to God because we want to prove to God that we trust Him. We want to show Him where our heart is in all of this. That's what it's all about. Showing Him where your heart is. See, the 90% then that I get, I get to choose to invest it. I get to choose where I want to spend it or save it. It's an amazing thing. I get to do all of this. And here's where we see Jesus challenge His followers. Right here in this 90%. We see Him challenge this idea of what we think we need. Okay? So He explains that because God provides for them, they have the ability to live with what they just need and then they can be generous with the rest. We have the opportunity then to invest in these heavenly treasures, these incredible ministries, these incredible adventures that God has for us, these God causes. So friend, let me ask you this. Do you want to be freed from the fear of not having enough? If you want to be freed, then maybe you need to recognize that everything that you have is from God. Do you want to be freed from the fear of not having enough? Then maybe you today need to make a conscious choice to give a percentage, a consistent percentage back to God. 1 Corinthians 16 says this to us, that we are to give back a percentage weekly at the beginning of each week for the work of God. For the work of God. That's what it's about. And as you do, basically what I want us to see that we're doing is saying to God, I trust you with everything. I'm proving it to you by investing in your kingdom. I'm proving it to you by saying I trust you with this percentage, and I'm going to do it weekly. Because God, I understand that it's your money, not mine. So you will provide my every need, and then I have the opportunity to invest it in God causes. This is an amazing thing. Kent, that's great and all. And I do want to trust God, but I can't do that. I can't do the scriptural principle of 10%. There's no way. I don't have room in my budget. Okay, listen. I understand that. I would challenge you to start somewhere then. Maybe it's you right now, getting out your communicator card and signing up for the good sense class to try to figure out how in the world I might be able to get to this. Sign up for the good sense class. Maybe it's you today making a commitment. Okay, God, I want to show you that I trust you 2%. I can do that. I want to give you 2% of my income to prove to you that I trust you, God. Some of you right now, you're going to go home and you're going to adjust your lifestyle so that you can give 5% of your income. You're going to take things away so that you can give and eventually work your way to the scriptural principle of tithing, 10% back to God. That's what it's about, to show God that you trust Him, to show Him where your heart is. That's what this is about. The Beatty Kiefers, they are continuously, every day, being freed from the prison of not having enough. They are. There was so much of their story that I wish that I could tell you. We actually captured 25 minutes of their story. And for any of you that know Eric, you know that that brother can talk. You know, after all, he's a salesman. So, listen. I want to end with this. The Beatty Kiefers, they're doing really well now. They are. Eric's business is crushing it. They're doing great. But here's the amazing thing. They continue to tithe to God through North Way. And it's not about North Way for them. It's about the day that they remembered that God provided their every need. That's what it's about. And the amazing thing about their story that I wish I could show you is this. The Beatty Kiefers have not forgotten where they've come from. They have not forgotten how God delivered on the day of the crisis that they needed. So much so, that Eric, on behalf of his small group, searching for ways to bless people. See, that's what happens when you're freed from the prison of not having enough and you understand that, woohoo, this is not mine. I'm just being a great steward for what God has given to me. I'm giving it back to God and now I'm looking for ways to bless other people because that's what God did for me. So now, what Eric has done is this past Christmas, there was a family at North Way that was not going to have a Christmas. And he inquired, tell me the story about all these families. And there was one family that was coming to the food pantry because they did not have enough food to eat. And Eric's words were this, they are mine. That's the family that we're going to give Christmas to. Now, how did he know how to do that? Why did he do that? It's because God provided their every need and now what is happening is that God is using them to provide for somebody else. See, that's the blessing of being a part of giving back to God is that he begins to use us to bless others and that's what it's about. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be called a fool by God. The baby keepers, they're not fools. God's going to say to them, well done, my good and faithful servants. Way to give back to me. I saw where your heart was. And man, I tell you, I loved it that time when you gave that family a Christmas. I loved it. So friends, let me ask you this. If you want to be freed from the fear of not having enough, do you trust God with that area of your life? Only you can answer that question. And that's a question that I hope you spend some time this week really thinking about. Let's stand and pray together. So God, I know that when guys like me get up here and talk about things like this, it could be so misinterpreted. But God, I pray that you would take the words that I spoke tonight, that people would pour over the passage that was read tonight. And God, that you would continue to just speak to us through it. God, I pray that this would be a church that would trust you even in this area of finances. God, I would just dream what we could do for your kingdom if we all just applied this principle to our lives and trusted you even in this area. So God, help us to be that church that is freed from the fear of not having enough. In Jesus' name, we pray these things. Amen. Go ahead and have a seat. Thank you. Thanks, Kent. In a moment, we're going to take our tithes and offerings. And if you're a guest with us this evening, I would encourage you, just be our guest. We're glad that you're here. I hope that this service in some way maybe was a gift or a challenge to you. If there's a way that our church can serve you, I want you to know it's our heart to do so. We would love to serve you. So as that offering basket comes around, if you would tear off that communicator piece that we talked about earlier in the service, just put your information down on it. If there's something going on in your life that you want us to be praying for throughout the week, if there's a need that maybe you would just, you would like our church to try to address, we'd love to serve you and be generous to you in whatever way we can. We'll be taking that in just a couple seconds. But before we do that, one of the things I want to talk about is last week, we mentioned an issue that's going on in our world is this issue of Haiti, just the tragedy that has happened with the earthquake over there. And many of you have been asking the question, how can we respond as a church to this tragedy in our world? Last week, we talked about Haiti relief and our part in this. We've teamed up with an organization called the Pittsburgh Kids Foundation. And Brad Henderson, who's a member here at our church, is the president of that organization. He is currently in country right now in Haiti. He has an orphanage and a variety of different ministries down there. Church, you always surprise us how generous you are in moments like this. Pastor Scott and I were talking this week, and it's always a shock when we see how generous you step into moments like this in our world. And we just want to thank you for that. Thank you for what you give to that. If you would like to give to that, we have some information right up front here. Also at the prayer kiosk in the back, you can grab that. You can donate right to their website. Or if you'd like to, you can just make out a check to North Way and write in the memo line, Haiti Relief, and we'll make sure it gets to them as well. Let me pray for the offering here this evening. Father God, there's probably few things that invoke more fear in our lives than the fear of not having enough. God, every one of us knows what it feels like. We have that fear of thinking, what if I don't have enough? What if we're down to our daughter's pennies in a penny bank? God, I pray that we would live in a way with our hands wide open, God. We recognize that everything that we have, the breath that we are breathing right now, the blood that's in our veins, tomorrow, it's all yours, even our stuff. So Lord, right now we give to you our tithes and our offerings, not out of duty, not out of fear, but God, because we love you. We pray that through this, that you will provide for many others that are in need around our world and right here in our city. We love you, Lord. Amen. If the ushers would come forward and take the offering, that would be great. You know, if you've never been baptized before, maybe you've been coming to North Way for a period of time, you've never taken that public step of saying, this is who I am in Jesus. I encourage you, coming up very soon on February 6th and 7th, we're having baptisms here in all of our services. We would love to have you be a part of that. If you feel out in the communicator after the service, if you grab me or one of the pastors, we would love to give you some information on that and get you plugged in to baptism coming up here very soon. Also, you should have received a card like this when you came in here this evening. It's called the Saturday Night Corps Team. We ran out of them, so if you didn't receive one, it's not because you're not invited. We want you to know, everyone that is here this evening is actually invited. We're having an event. It's actually at my house next Saturday night. It'll be kind of a party. There'll be food there, desserts there, appetizers there. People have been asking, how big is your house? Can you fit everyone in? We'll find a way to pack them all in. It could be pretty interesting, but we'd love for you to be there. One of the things we're trying to do right now is build a unique community right here on Saturday night. You know, it's been exciting to watch this community continue to grow over the past few weeks in order to kind of meet the needs of many of the people in here. We want to build a community of people that can kind of serve in everything from our kids to our ushers to our greeters and even think up maybe new ideas for this community to serve our greater community as well. And so we'd love for you to come. It should be a great time. We'll get to know each other a little better and just dream about what we can do right here as a Saturday evening community, how we can continue to grow. Also, one of the things that we're having this evening is the small group connect. When you walked in, you should have been walking through a maze of tables out there in our lobbies. There's just a dozen of different small groups that you can be part of. Neighborhood groups, study groups, care groups. Neighborhood groups are groups that meet in people's houses like small groups, Bible studies. Study groups are great groups. We have one being taught right now by Dr. James Platt. He's a professor here, a local professor at many seminaries. He's teaching a class on Revelation starting next week. A great study group you can be part of and care groups meet on Monday nights here. They address a number of different needs that Pastor Kent talked about as well. They'll be right out there. This is a great time to jump in. Twice a year, we kind of have a front door open time just to jump into our groups. This is one of those times. So if you're not in a group, I would encourage you just after the service, walk right there in the lobby. Get to know some of the leaders. Maybe sign up for the groups right here this evening. Also tonight, we have some food that's provided from some local restaurants. Taste of India and Cranberry has provided some food to some hors d'oeuvres to kind of taste some of their food. So I encourage you to check that out. Also Blue Water Tavern has provided some hors d'oeuvres as well. So grab some food, get to know someone new here this evening, and we're glad that you're here. God bless, and we'll see you guys next week.