Don’t Settle for Superficial

Why don't you look at your neighbor? Tell them it's a good day to be in church. All right, you can have a seat. Give your neighbor a high five on your way to your seat.

Hey, tell them we're in a money series. Money series. Everybody's so quiet in a money. Someone said money.

What? Who's got money? Not me. Hey.

Uh, man, I'm I'm so excited about what what God's been doing lately. I used to be someone who was scared to talk about money. Some of y'all still think I'm scared to talk about money. Um, but I I just, man, God has done so many valuable and precious things in my life and in my family's life.

Uh, when it comes to trusting him in every area, but specifically when it comes to finances, God just I don't know, maybe it's because finances stress me out so much that the grace of God comes into my life so much when I trust him with my finances. And so, we're in this series. Uh Maggie did a great job talking about it. Just want to reiterate very quickly what we're doing.

What we're believing what we're doing is we're believing God over the next couple of weeks for something very specific. We're asking him, "Hey God, what do you want to do in my life over the next couple of months, over the next year, and what you're doing is you're looking at your life situations. You're looking at the things you think God might be teaching you. And you're kind of whittling or funneling those things down into a theme, an idea, or a word or phrase that you're going to believe God for in the coming year.

I I think this is something you only encounter effectively with prayer. So my encouragement to you, start praying. Ask God, what do you want to do? God is man, God's so good.

He says when in Jeremiah 29, I think it's 13, he says, when you seek me where I can be found, I will be found by you. So let's seek God. We're praying to God to give us a word that we're believing him for in the next year. And in tandem with that word or phrase, uh we're we're bringing an offering.

We call this a year-end offering. It's a moment in the year where we enable uh God's word to ring true in our lives. He tells us to trust him with our finances. It might be trusting him like period.

I'm going to trust God by giving something financially. It might be that we're trusting God with the Old Testament tithe. St. Augustine says rudimentary Old Testament practice of the tithe where we take 10% of our income and we distribute it to the local church believing that God will do something powerful with it.

And others of us are called to go above and beyond that. We're trying to move into New Testament levels of generosity uh where we eventually someday give all that we have to God but we start with 10% and we start incrementally moving up because sometimes it's hard to trust God in our finances. is. And on December 6th, is it 6th or 7th?

Whatever that Sunday is, sixth or seventh, sixth, seven, you know, who knows? I thought I'd get more laughs. The second service would have laughed heavily at that joke, especially on an accident, right? It was just accidental.

I said 67. It was great. Um, on that Sunday, we're going to bring that card that you have on your seat. I think there's a card on your seat.

We're going to bring that card with the word written on it. We're going to drop it in the offering boxes. Uh some of you are going to bring an offering uh for the first time offering a tithe offering for the first time or maybe above and beyond the tithe. And then after that, what I want you to do, we're going to give you a little gift, a little magnet to commemorate this moment where you can write your word down.

In fact, I don't know if it'll be on the screen behind me, but you might have seen it in the pre-ervice slides. We've actually got a digital uh thing from Canva that you can it's a template that you can utilize to write your word down and save it as your background on your phone uh or somewhere else. You can just post it on your story if you want to as well. And then another thing we have to commemorate this moment is we have this uh privacy screen that's supposed to represent a picket fence.

Something that we don't want to settle for in this world because God has called us more to more than a picket fence, a sandbox, or something else. He's given us a birthright, a double portion, uh something that is beyond what we have asked, thought, or imagined up to this point. And so we are writing down our words and remembering them throughout the year. There's my introduction.

I'm going to be in the book of Genesis today. And I said last week that I would talk to you guys about money in general, not just about giving to the local church. I think that was a myth of mine last year where I think it's valuable to talk about giving. Those who give already love it when I talk about giving.

It's those who don't give that kind of get a little frustrated once in a while. I would imagine that our attendance will trickle over the next couple of weeks. Um, but I wanted to talk about more than just giving because God calls us to give. He calls us to trust him.

I'm not against talking about that, but some of the reasons we don't is because we struggle with our spending or we struggle with how we attain wealth. And so, in this series, I want to talk about all of those things because God because God cares about all of the ways that we interact with money, not just whether we give to the church or not. He cares how we spend, how we earn, and he cares how we invest and save as well. So, I'm going to jump in.

We're going to be in Genesis chapter 25. I'm going to read the passage for you. It may be familiar to some, but since it won't be to others, I'm going to give you a brief bit of context. In the book of Genesis, you know, you have creation.

Genesis 1 through3 talks about Adam and Eve. They sinned, fell short of the glory of God. God, you know, kicks them out of the garden. He bars them from going into the garden again.

And then they populate the earth. And as they populate the earth, there's a specific person that God really takes a liking to because of his faithfulness to God. It's a man named Abraham. And Genesis picks up, I think, at about 11 or 12 with the lineage of Abraham.

You have Abraham who has his son Isaac that he almost didn't have for a second, but then the angel of the Lord stopped him and he didn't kill him. Provided a lamb in the thicket anyway, a ram in the thicket rather. And uh then he has his son Isaac, which is good because then Isaac has two sons. Anyone?

Anyone Bible Bible scholars, Bible story people in the room? People went to vacation Bible school once or twice growing up. They they know the name of Isaac's two sons, Jacob and Esau. If you don't know, it's I'm not judging you.

I didn't know I didn't grow up going Bible school and all that other Christian stuff. I grew up just watching um those dating shows on MTV. So, I had to I had to learn this later. Um but what what happens here is they're born.

Uh they're twins. They come out at the same time kind of. Jacob grabs his heel on the way out. Some crazy stuff occurs.

We learn that Isaac likes Esau and his wife Rebecca likes Jacob. There's your context leading in to this passage. I'm going to start in verse 29 and I'll read through verses or verse 34. Says this, once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country famished.

You know what famished is? Just in case you don't. It means he's hungry. Yeah, he's super hungry.

I don't know how hungry. Uh, but he thinks he's really hungry. Verse 30, he said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew. I'm famished.

" That is why he's also called Eden. Now, I'm going to give you a little context there because uh he was called I mean, the the nation that he would birth down the road is called Edom. Uh because of the complexion and the the the complexion was red. I'm not trying to talk any mess about anybody.

This is what the scriptures say. says, "Quick, let me have some of this red stew. " And the red stew was what they would name his people after this moment uh and their complexion. Anyways, Jacob replied, verse 31, "First, before I give you this soup or stew, sell me your birthight.

" It's an intense moment. He should have just given him the stew. That would be what a nice guy does. But anyways, who knows about their twin relationship.

I don't know if you knew this, but I'm a twin. I got a twin brother. We're radically different. Do we ever act like Jacob and Esau sometimes?

Yeah, once my my mom's like, "Yeah, of course you do. " I know which one I am, mom, so don't talk too much mess. I'm Esau, actually, just to be be honest with you. He's a nicer guy than name.

Uh verse 32, look, I'm about to die. Esau said, "What good is the birthright to me? " Verse 33, "But Jacob said, swear to me first. " This is actually legal language um that when he swears to Jacob in a moment, this is a binding covenant between him or a contract between him and Esau that like he cannot have his birthright after this moment.

So he swore an oath to him selling his birthight to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, then got up and left. So, and this is a summary phrase, one that encapsulates this entire passage that I read.

It's not something that happened after the fact. This is a summary statement for how Esau thought about his birthright. It says, "So, Esau apparently, based on what we just saw, despised his birthight. " Now, I want to remind us of the guiding principles that will take us through this series.

They'll they'll be on the screen behind you. I talked about them last week because when it comes to spending, when it comes to earning, when it comes to um saving and investing, when it comes to giving, whether it's tithes or offerings, God is always calling us to put him before our money. And so these principles that guide us are right here. The first one, if it controls you, do we have it?

Yeah, there we go. If it controls you, it's your God. If it controls you, it's your God. The second one, if it isn't worship, it's waste.

Now, I have another slide for you to apply these principles to the specific passage. Here's what Esau did. Esau spent or the text says sold his birthright because he was controlled by his appetite. Should be easy to remember.

I didn't mean to rhyme it, but it rhymes, so you should remember it. He spent his birthright because he was controlled by his appetite. I'm going to talk to you guys about spending today. I'm going to talk to you about spinning.

Second one, if it isn't worship, it's waste. Here's what happens in the story here. Esau settled for stew when he could have worshiped and remembered what his birthright truly was. This is a moment for Esau when this isn't one of my points, but I wish he would have just moved from his amygdala to his prefrontal cortex.

I say it this way. You got to move from A to C, amygdala to your cortex. All right. Cortex is your center of reasoning.

Amigda is the seat of the emotions. You got to move from your appetite to your birthright. How about we say that A to B, then to cortex C, because that's just scientific stuff. You don't need this is all on the fly.

I'm so sorry. I got to actually preach my message today. But that's how this applies. Because what happens is we settle for our appetite when we could lean into our birthright.

And I want us to lean into that. And I'm going to talk about what our birthright is. I'm going to talk about how God wants us to live. But so often when it comes to the way that we interact with money, we are settling.

And the series is called don't settle. We settle for soup just like him. But let me bring it to the present day. And I got a list of s words for you.

We settle for soup, Starbucks, sneakers, salary, stocks, subscriptions. I got to speed this up. There's too many. Shopping, smartphones, SUVs, skincare, supplements, snacks, self-care, spontaneous purchases, scented candles, seasonal decor, street wear, storage sheds for all the stuff we have too much of already.

Ultimately, we settle for things that bring us status. We settle for status symbols and and that's what they are. They're just symbols. They don't mean anything.

Just because you look like you've got something doesn't mean you actually have what is beneficial. These are just symbols. But your spiritual state and your overall connection with God oftentimes because of your appetite for all of these status symbols, it's neglected. your spiritual state.

And I don't want us to settle. In fact, here's my sermon title. Look at your neighbor. Tell them, "Don't settle for superficial.

" Almost said superstitious. Don't settle for that either. Don't settle for superficial. All of this stuff is superficial stuff.

I need you to know. Um, it really is not that big of a deal. And the way that we spend our money is often more weighted toward that which is superficial than that which is actually spiritual. And my hope in talking to you about spending today.

I'm not trying to be in your living room today. I'm not trying to make you frustrated today. But I do think the Lord has something to say about spending today. So what I want to do is I want to starting with this passage about Jacob and Esau.

someone who was more leaning into the feeling or his appetite than he was into his birthright. Many of us fall into that category. And I want to talk to you about what scripture says about how we should spend. And I'm going to break it down very simply for you.

Uh I'm going to break it down utilizing two main categories. The first category is what we should stop spending money on. The second category is what we should start spending money on. Don't put it up there yet.

But I I want to remind you of this woman who worshiped Jesus by pouring perfume on Jesus. Everybody else thought it was waste, but Jesus saw it as a beautiful thing, something that was worshipful. So God has called us to not spend. Say, but also, but also he has called us to spend.

And I think sometimes we like we all get stuck in the appetite and the superficial. We get stuck in the spending mode. And many of us in this room, one thing that you need to do is you need to stop spending on superficial items because it's not helping you get to where God wants you to be. You got to settle your appetite so that you can step into your birthright.

That's many of us in this room, but there are some. There's a small pocket of people in here. I want you to know there is a time to spend money. And it's when God calls you to do it.

is when it increases your worship or the worship of those around you. I don't hear a lot of preachers say this. I don't hear a lot of Dave Ramsey people say this. I'm not talking mess about Dave Ramsey.

I think Dave Ramsey would agree with me on this. I think Crown Financial would agree with me on this and I know the spirit of the living God agrees with me on this. There's a time to save and there's a time to spend. So, I want to start with some things we got to stop spending money on.

The first four and I'll break these down in a second. First four things we should stop spending money on. First, stop spending on status. Second, stop spending on distractions.

Stop spending on what you don't have. Stop spending what you don't have. Stop spending on what doesn't actually add value. Now, really quickly, I'm going to give you the list of things you should start spending money on if you haven't.

Start spending money on formation or development. Start spending money on God's mission. Start spending money toward the future. And start spending on what actually adds value.

Now, before I break these down, does this make sense to everybody? Say, "Yeah. " All right. Because there's a lot of things you're spending money on that you think you need, but you really don't.

And there's some of you who refuse to spend money on the things that actually add value because you're trying to save, but you really need to spend some money. And I'm not just going to talk to you about giving today. There is a time and a place for you to take what God blessed you with and utilize it for his purposes. And that is spending.

So, let's break down what we should stop spend money on. First one was you got to stop spending on status. And I really want some engagement today. I know the first service usually is still waking up.

You're trying to get your stuff together a little bit. Uh but I want you to engage with me a little bit. If if you agree with something, we should probably stop spending money on. Feel free to say yeah or amen or oof.

Yeah. Second service, we have a couple people who are like oof. They did that the whole service. It amped me up.

It was good. It's like they were preaching the message for me. And I don't know if you realize that, but those of you who are followers of Jesus here, uh you have people down the road that you really really want to help grow closer to God. All you have to do is engage with the sermon in a way that's authentic um and and sometimes a little bit more heightened than you're used to.

And they're going to listen to you more than they'd even listen to me because they don't trust me about money, but they trust someone who's experienced the grace of God uh when they've spent properly. All right, so let's dive into it. First off, we got to stop spending on status. I'll give you a couple examples of status.

Cars. cars. I'm not going to spend too much time on each one because I won't be able to finish this sermon. But I passed someone's driveway yesterday and I'm not I'm not a judgy person.

I'm not a judgy person. But when you happen to know somebody and you know that they're struggling financially, but they got two brand new cars in the driveway that you know they're paying a5 to 700 to $1,200 payment on it. You wonder where all their money is going. And I want you, if you feel like you just need that car, but you can't afford that car, but the interest rate's going to keep you in debt and prevent you from doing all the things that you want to do and that God's called you to do.

You might need a smaller or less nice car. Okay, I'm waiting on y'all. Goodness gracious. You know that's right.

I already told you about my minivan. Had to get rid of it. $700 is too much for a car payment. Best case scenario, you buy that thing at whatever cost.

You take it off the lot and it depreciates. It's not good to own too many cars that you can't afford. Clothes. I know.

I've got like a new pair of white shoes half the time. I got problems. But but so do you. It's cuz the white shoes keep keep getting dirty and I don't know how to clean them.

Clothes. Some of y'all be spending too much money on clothes. And I know we've got that hat available today that we didn't have last week, but I need you to know if you can't afford that hat, you shouldn't buy that hat. You don't need that hat.

Unless you just feel called by God to go market Orbit Church in front of the community, in which case it could be something that God calls you to do. But I'm not advertising. I'm just telling you got to be wise with your money when it comes to clothing and accessories. Some of y'all feel like you need to upgrade your tech every single time something new comes out.

I just I'm not trying to talk mess. There's nothing wrong inherently with upgrading tech. I upgraded tech that one time and now I'm late to the game on it. Sometimes there's a reason to do it when you think it's valuable or beneficial, but when it derails you from the mission, it is not good for you.

And if you going to go into debt on a thing that you going to drop in the water on accident, you need to you need Okay, stop spending on you. You got to stop spending on vacations. Now, let me be clear. I think vacations are extremely important.

I think vacations can be an investment when you do it properly. But some of y'all are doing vacations to the places that everybody else goes just so you can flex and act like you got status. Every time I see someone go to Santorini, I'm like, [snorts] why? I'm not.

No, Santorini is probably great, but that's where everybody else goes. These influencers that you're trying to follow and do everything just like them. I know I'm 27 years old, barely having income, still live in my parents' house, but I need to travel the world, don't I? No, you don't.

I'm not trying to be mean, but God has a plan for your money that is bigger than you satisfying your frivolous appetites because you got a birthright. You got you got a birthight. You got something bigger in your life than a vacation. Gosh, I got to move on.

How about aesthetics? I know. I know your house has got to look funue and when people come in, you got to have the right type of scenic candles and all this other stuff. Aesthetics, I get it because you want to be hospitable to people, but when you're going on your credit card, you don't need aesthetics that much.

Sports and recital. I know. I feel like I don't know if this is indigestion or the Holy Spirit, but I just felt I felt like when we get to heaven one day, the Lord's going to ask me about more things than whether I remember my coro for coro for bootylicious. You know, back in the day, I could have got that joke better.

But you I don't I mean I'll go to your dance recital, but you got to promise me beforehand that it's clean. I had one experience where I went to a dance recital. They told me that thing cost thousands of dollars for all the outfits and the training and then the travel and all that other stuff. I ain't talking about anyone in here.

This was in Slido, Louisiana. And then I show up at this thing that cost them tons of money and I had to do this half the time. I ain't trying to see 12-year-olds bump and grind. Okay, I don't need all that.

What are they going to be? You want them to be a hip-hop dancer? I don't I just Anyways, I'm I'm not just think about what you're spending your money on. And I know people who are going into debt in order to do this kind of stuff.

And I need you to know there are more important things. This is not me saying you shouldn't do sports. Aren't our kids in sports? Of course they're in sports.

I think there's something very valuable that happens when they learn the grit and determination necessary in order to win at a certain type of sport. I'm not saying don't do these things. I'm saying consider what God's calling you to when it comes to spending money on these things. The problem that Esau had, the problem that we have is that we man, we spent all this money without even a thought.

But God's called us to really think about what we spend our money on because you might be accidentally trading your birthright or the double portion which actually is what that birthright is. The birthright is where the firstborn gets a double portion of the rest of the other people's inheritance because he's the firstborn. And Esau because he wanted some stew traded his birthright, the double portion. And many of us because of our appetite are trading our double portion and we're stuck with less than God wants for us.

Oh my gosh, I got to move through. I guess we went longer on worship. Let me give you a couple scriptures. First off, this is in Proverbs 12:9.

Better than being nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food. All right, somebody stop pretending. I know you live in that neighborhood where they want you to pretend and you got to act like it, but if Oh, never mind. I'm not going to go into it.

All right, next verse. Galatians 1:10. Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God? Am I trying to please people?

If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Second thing you got to stop spending money on. You got to stop spending money on distractions. Uh there's this thing we call creep.

It's when you start with Disney Plus and then you move to Netflix and then you move to Paramount Plus, then you move to Peacock and then you move to Apple TV and then you move to HBO Max. This is called Creep where you started with one subscription cuz it was nine bucks a month and then you got like 10 subscriptions and then you're like but I want to watch games so ESPN but the Disney version is not very good so I'm just going to play for Fubo. Is that what they call it? Fubo.

Yeah. You spending all this money on this this distraction. [laughter] Just get Angel and you'll be fine. Yeah.

You'll only watch Christian stuff but you still pay for it. Is it free? I'm not going to ask. I got to finish this sermon.

I got to finish this sermon. All right. All right. Here are the things that we distract ourselves with.

Streaming, tech upgrades, sports betting, gaming, Facebook, Facebook Marketplace, Door Dash, Nightife, incessant hobbies. This treat yourself culture. I treat myself to these pedicures every single week. Here's another scripture for you.

Proverbs 23. Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat. For drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothe them in rags. This isn't just about alcohol and eating too much food.

This is about our appetites drowning us and making it to or getting us to the place where not only do we not have a double portion, but we find ourselves emptied at the end of the day. Stop spending money on what? Stop spending what you don't have. I'll have a bunch of examples.

I think I put enough said right up here, right? Yeah. Enough said. Here's your scripture.

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it, and they will see it, will ridicule you, saying, "This person began to build and was not able to finish. " You've got to calculate the cost and the actual value of what you are trying to spend your money on.

The final one on spending money, stop spending on what does not actually add value. This is stuff like impulse, creep, excessive convenience. I need this or I will need this type stuff. This is fees and interest.

This is all of the things that because you have not sat down with your creator and said, "What do I need, Lord? What are you trying to do with me, Lord? " You have not asked these questions to him. So, your birthright seems pointless.

But right now, this I was looking at this this food robot, Hannah. You know, a food robot. I think they call it the therma something. It's like 2,600 bucks and it makes the food for you.

All you got to do is drop the ingredients in and it fully makes it right. Isn't that crazy? I was just tick- tocking straight through that. I was like, could this work for us?

Right? Like, no, that's dumb. I'm not saying you shouldn't get it if you're at that place in life where paying $2,500 for a convenience will actually help you make more money. We could talk about that in the coming weeks when we talk about attaining wealth.

Um, but for most of us, that is just a convenience item that doesn't add the value I'm looking for. And I need to have a deep connected conversation with my creator so that I stop spending. In other words, I stop wasting and I'm called to worship. So, how do we worship with how we spend?

Here are a few ways. First off, what to start spending money on? You got to start spending on formation. You got to spend on your spiritual formation.

It's worth it to spend on your spiritual formation. It's worth it. It's worth it to buy that Bible. I know it might be a little more expensive than you're looking for.

You can get cheap ones if you want to, but it's worth spending money on that. It's worth spending money on that thing that is going to add value to your life spiritually. It's worth spending money on spiritual formation. It's worth spending money on your family's development.

Now, this is where it is complex. It is not simple because sometimes my family's development is going and buying something that I in my desire for instant gratification grabbed them because I wanted them to just shout and scream and joy when I gave it to them versus something that God's called me to do to invest into my child. These are two different things. And what God wants you to do is rather than just gratify the desires of your flesh by making an immediate purchase that then you in post or retroactively describe as something that God's going to use to bless your kid.

What if you made the decision on the front end and said, "You know what? I'm going to pray about what I'm going to get my kid for Christmas. I'm going to pray about my kid's spiritual development. I'm going to pray about how we can get my family to the place where God wants it to be over the next 5, 10, or 15 years.

And then I'm going to start spending money in that direction. The third thing, spend to encounter biblical community. I think it's important for us to spend money. I I I love the people in this room who recognize the value of biblical community.

Maybe they open up their home and say, you know, it costs a little bit of money to open up my home, but the value I glean from this is worth it. Uh it might be you going out and eating with somebody, breaking bread with them, and you know, it costs a little bit of money because you're older than them and you decided you were going to pay for them. It's not something you could do every single day, but for that specific moment of disciplehip that you have with that other person, it's totally worth it to spend my money because I'm seeing that spending as an investment that will reap eternal benefits. It's worth it to invest in biblical community.

The Bible says in Proverbs 23:23, "Buy the truth and do not sell it. wisdom, instruction, and insight as well. Buy the truth and do not sell it. Uh, where am I at?

Okay. Sorry. Start spending money on God's mission. And I'll just give you the list really quickly.

Spend so the local church is thriving in your community. This isn't me just telling you to give, though that's part of it. This is me saying, "What does God want for our community? " And he wants the eklesia, the gathered ones of God to be in the community, making it better, restoring shalom to the community.

So spend so that the local church is thriving in your community. Spend so your relatives and neighbors come to Christ. Have you ever even thought about that? That I'm going to spend my money in such a way that the people down the street might come to the saving knowledge of Jesus.

God's called us to spend all of our lives on this pursuit. That includes our money. spend so that shalom or peace is restored in your vicinity. Meaning my job with the wealth that God has given me is to take whatever my vicinity is.

It could be 10 feet. It could be 10 miles. It could be an entire city. Whatever your vicinity is, you are called by God to use what he has given you, every resource to restore the peace of God into that community.

Reconciling the world to God. That's what we're called to use our money for, to restore shalom. Y'all know this verse. Matthew 6:33 says, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

You seek that and all of the other things will be given to you as well. " What he's saying is, "If you seek my will, I will add many of the things that you desire. If you seek my will, I will add what you desire. " He's not saying he's going to give us all the wealth that we desire.

But we're not going to desire all the wealth when we seek his will. But when we seek his will, he will ensure that all of us are provided for. So I can trust that when I spend money in God's direction, it will come back at least as a double portion. But if you look at Job, it's tfold.

It's so worth it to spend money in God's direction. I'll give you a final slide here. When it comes to spending money, start spending money toward the future. Spend on I put this This is just practical, guys.

I told you it'd be practical. I call it an anti-Isau fund. This is an emergency fund so that you don't go into debt when your car breaks down, but you actually have an emergency savings there so you can grab it. And it it it irks you a little bit to grab what you intentionally save.

But it's better to do that than it is to go into debt on something that's going to cost 21 to 27% uh annually. That's that's pretty jacked up that you would do that, right? Like it's t spend on helpful insurance. I'm gonna leave that there.

spend on helpful insurance. And when I say helpful insurance, I'm saying there are certain insuranceances that are beneficial to you, some that could be considered waste. I'm not going to break that down for you. In fact, this would be a good time.

Where's Nicole? Matthew, you're here. This would be a good time to announce that at the beginning of January, we're going to be jumping into our financial peace university FPU class. They'll give you way more practical value than I'm going to give here, but I'm going to give you a couple more.

Spend on reducing debt, which is an interesting thing. You pay money toward debt so that you can reduce it, knowing that your peace is going to be increased and your purpose will be fulfilled down the road. Spend on that which appreciates. Did you appreciate that one?

Spend on that which appreciates in value. Stop spending money on that which withers and fades away. The scriptures would give us plenty on that. And I'm going to say this very clearly.

Spend on yourself. And I'm not saying waste on yourself. I'm saying spend intentionally on things that add value to your life and invest into yourself so that you can develop into the person that God's called you to be. There are times where we invest into my wife and her career.

There are times that we invest into me and my career. And when we do that, this money is not wasted. It is intentionally spent so that our purpose in Christ can be ultimately fulfilled. Here's your big idea.

If you don't tell your money where to go, your appetite will drain it. If you don't tell your money where to go, your appetite will drain your bank account. But if you worship God with your money, he will multiply it. I know this sounds pretty, but it's 100% true.

If you don't tell your money where to go, you might even assign a percentage. Just like the Bible tells us to do that, doesn't it? You might even assign a percentage that every bit of your money goes to so that you don't end up in this place where you're walking down the aisle about to check out and you see that stuff to your right on the aisle, you know, the aisle leading up to checking out. I I think they call it something.

They call it spontane or spontaneous stuff. Impulse. Impulse. That's what they call it.

Isn't that crazy? They legit call it impulse. You would think they would at least call it, you know, convenient or like people need this or, you know, the the last minute uh important items aisle. They literally call it the impulse aisle.

And Satan wants to pull you away from your birthright. Your appetite wants to pull you away from your birthright. Uh but when you trust God with your money by assigning all of it to things that glorify and honor him, he will multiply it and you'll find yourself blessed at the end of the day. Uh don't ask me uh don't believe me, just ask somebody who does it down your row.

And to close this uh message out, I want to give you a couple quick axioms that I've gleaned from this text about Jacob and Esau. They'll be on the screen behind me. The first one, it's interesting what happens in the passage in the Hebrew, the the red stew, the red stew that Jacob was making that Esau wanted. This is what Esau says.

He literally says, uh uh fill me with that red stuff. Actually, better translation, fill me with that red red stuff. That is the Hebrew translation. And so, I wanted to tell you here like that was just stew for him.

But for us, many of these things that we're spending money on, it's just stuff. It's not adding value. It's not beneficial. In fact, it might be completely constraining you in relation to the calling that God has placed on you.

So remember, it's just stuff. You don't need it. In fact, my next axiom for you, this is straight from the text. I love it when it's straight from the text.

He says, "What good is my birthright if I'm about to die? " And the scholar, biblical scholars tell us, "He weren't about to die. And I want to tell you this. I know you think you need that thing.

I I goodness, I know your car just broke down and you got to spend $3,000 on that AC unit to be fixed. I know your water heater just broke and you don't want to stand in cold water. Like, I know some of this stuff is emergent. Like, it's an emergency.

But I need you to know this. for the most part, you're not going to die. And so, you can actually lean into what God's called you to, recognizing that this is just stuff and it's not going to kill you in order to push it aside so that you can lean into your birthright. And the Bible says that it says that Esau despised his birthright.

I find it interesting that many of us when we waste all of our wealth on our appetite, we tend to look at people who have actually received that double portion and we tend to despise that which they have that we don't. But we don't have it because we spent it. And for for all of the people in this room, it's easier to tell yourself that the birthright wasn't worth it than [snorts] it is to tell yourself that it is. Remember it and start radically shifting our spending habits.

And so for you today, I I just want to give you this very pragmatic point that everything in your wallet is meant to go toward your worship of your creator, not to you gratifying the desires of your flesh. And there may be some people in this room, you're like, he keeps saying birthright. What is a birthright? Well, as you see scripture play out, you see that there's something even more beautiful than a double portion of material wealth.

In the Old Testament, you see a lot of blessing delved out as material blessing. But in the in the New Testament, what we see is that because of what Jesus did by coming living a perfect life, dying on the cross for our sins, raising to walk, sitting at the right hand of the father, because of all that he did, when we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, the Bible says we are sons and daughters of the most high God. And so what I want to tell you is your birthright is not just material blessing. Your birthright is an eternity with your creator.

And you can spend all you want, but that's still something that God gives to us who have trusted in Jesus. at the same time when we've received such great grace, how can we not give our lives to him in worship? So, I want to tell anyone in this room who doesn't have a relationship with Jesus, who's hearing me talk about how we should spend our money toward things that are worshipful. I want to tell you that the reason we want to worship God with all of our finances is because we've received such a great grace.

I guess a new birth in Christ Jesus that he would die for us and bring us in to his family and tell us that he'll do immeasurably more than we can ask, think, or imagine. That if we just seek him first in his kingdom, he'll add everything that is needed. Everything. And since we serve a God who've given us who has given us a birthright that is immeasurably more, my encouragement to you is to follow that God with every aspect of your life.

For some, it's finances today. For others of you, it's not just finances. It It's giving your life over to him. So, I want to pray for those of you who have never trusted in Jesus.

If everybody would bow their heads and close their eyes. We pray this prayer together for the benefit of those who are stepping into this new creation moment by confessing Jesus as Lord. Repeat after me. Say, "God, I believe that Jesus is your son.

I believe he died on the cross and rose from the grave. Forgive me of my sin. Make me new. Help me revolve everything around you.

" It's in Jesus's name that we pray. And all God's people said, y'all celebrate those who just trusted in Jesus right now.