Promise Land - Week 1 - The CORE - Pastor Mike Novotny
Promise Land
Week 1 - The CORE
Pastor Mike Novotny
Good morning, happy Sunday. Welcome to week number one, Promise Land.
Actually wasn't planning on talking to you today about money.
I'm super glad that I am. And in a few minutes, I think you're going to be super glad that I am too. You see we're working off a series on the promises of God today. And as I was thinking about the promises that God makes to his people, I thought about one of my all-time favorite promises, God's presence. That wherever a Christian is, are heavenly fathers right by our side, and it doesn't show up with half of himself or 10% of himself, but with all of his glory, his power, his wisdom is compassion is justice. His forgiveness. If you're a follower of Jesus, there's no singular place on the planet where you could be where God is not by your side. I was so excited to preach about that. Promise that I opened my Bible to one of the best passages to prove. That promise Hebrews 13 verse 5. The second half of the verse says this. Because God has said, Never will? I leave you and never will I forsake you.
And I'll super jacked up as a pastor to spend 30 minutes talking about that but then it's not hit me. If I'm gonna preach on the second half of verse it's probably biblically responsible that I also read the
The first half of the verse,
And that's when I discovered that this verse is not just about the presence of. God, this verse is primarily about Money.
Improvity the whole verse says this. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. Because God has said, never will I leave you, and never will I first take you.
Have gotten us have a funny sense of humor because the data that I sat down to study, this verse not knowing it's context, was about financial means, my heart was not quite right. And money was the problem.
I'm not making this up just about be more dramatic as a preacher. Literally the data that I sit down and open my computer to start typing notes. My life was financially like this. Let me see, it's been an interesting financial year for my family. My wife step back from her full-time. The salary job just have a little bit more work-life balance which is great, but the means of her income was chopped by about 60%, as now she works, then overly part-time job and we were prepared for that. There's some other stuff going on in our family that you know, we're getting by. I was tracking the budget. But what I wasn't planning on was my mechanic. Who called me and said quote, “Mike your car is old.”
And of course it's like we need to fix the transmission lines going to cost you X. And the brakes are this close to going. Did you plan on driving this car? In the highway was a question. You literally asked me. So, you know, we add up X and Y and Z and then he says, honestly, even if we do all this, even if you pay all this, I can't guarantee along, it's gonna run and that would have been bad enough. Except this wasn't the really old car that I drive. That some of you have seen Tina, my Towne & Country with 255,000 miles on it. And then I started thinking oh my goodness if Tina dies, which she could any day literally, and this other car dies if anything how much it cost to buy a used car these days, It's insane. I'm looking at my bank account thinking I can maybe cover one, but I'm not sure if I can cover two.
And of course, this is the exact same week where my wife's text me and says, hey just got back from the dentist, was that Brooklyn needs her wisdom teeth taken out. Our dentist by the ways, the guy who's playing guitar today, in worship Blake. So I thought and Dr. Blake is going to cover it.
Insurance is going to cover it, some of it, she said, and when I get the bill 2,000 more dollars after insurance. And so go to, I go to church, I sit down to try to study week, one of this sermon series and the car or cars are on my mind and the wisdom teeth bill is on my mind and the paychecks are on my mind, the banking statement is on my mind and I sit down to, you know, divert a little bit and get ready for this arm, and who would have thought? That might have any father wanted to have a word with my heart. About his promises.
I'm so glad that God wanted to talk to me that day about money.
And I wonder if some of you are in that same boat.
Yeah, I've kind of noticed that doesn't matter if you live in America or Africa. Doesn't matter if you're a part-time employee or you're the boss who's cutting the paychecks, doesn't matter. If you're a teenager trying to save up for your cell phone bill or college tuition, or your retiree looking at your portfolio, stocks the inflation and the market. It, you can't escape this situation where it's so easy to worry about wealth.
I mean, most of us live in the most prosperous culture in all of human history, but that doesn't mean that we have somehow moved past the fear of not having enough this happen to you.
And if you're working a part-time job, Making 15 bucks an hour, trying to be the first person in your family, to go to college, and then you look at the tuition that it costs to go to college on 15 bucks, but 15,000 a year if you're lucky. A semester more likely.
Maybe you met someone, you're ready to settle down and you're looking how much it cost to buy a ring or to plan it? What is the average wedding in America right now about 30,000 dollars, You want to put on a down payment on a house and the market is not and you can't even get an inspection and you better outbid, the 17 other offers
And maybe you're on a fixed income. And that thing comes from the government, in the mail that says, we're adjusting your benefits.
If you look at the national debt in America, And such I think about inflation and your future, or your children, or your children's children, maybe make the mistake. Like I have to go to one of those websites of how much you should have invested by your age. It's probably smart but just don't do it. Doesn't matter if you're investing, you're always you're always behind.
Or maybe just made some bad choices with money. You spend as soon as it hits your pocket and you're not prepared for when the car repair hits or the wisdom teeth, need to come out, There's a medical bill you didn't anticipate paying or a divorce that you didn't want, but now there's child support payments.
Kind of 15,000 different things can happen that just just leaves us. And it's like low level anxiety. Will I have enough? Am I gonna be okay? What's tomorrow going to look like?
And I'm not supposed to that, that is why in context I am. So glad I think we are so glad that our heavenly father wants to talk to us today about money. Now today's one of those church sermons where the pastor says, God wants us to be generous and then we pass the basket twice. So you can, you can give more This is the time to place for financial generosity. It's part of being a Christian but today's not what you're giving instead, it's what you're getting.
A promise that God gives to all of his children, no matter how rich or how broke you may be a promise that can move you from the place. Where I was, this low-level panic to a place where I'm getting closer to a peace in God's promises.
So today I want to share with you this beautiful passage from Hebrews chapter 13 but in context what you're heavenly father has to say to save you from fear and get you back to a promise-based faith.
So if you're ready for that good old Bible, we're just following along the screen where Hebrews 13 today. And we begin with these words.
Keep your lives free from the love of money. And be content with what you have.
So, governance to talk to us about the love of money. Actually important that we note that phrase. Some people think that the Bible is against money. Like money is the roots of all kinds of evil. It's actually a misquote of a Bible passage. In 1 Timothy chapter 6, it says God is not against people who have money, He's not against people who have lots of money. There were people in the Bible who are very faithful and very rich. You don't have to take a vow of poverty to follow Jesus, having money, making money, trying to make more money, investing money, saving money, spending money. None of these things are problems with your heavenly father. What is the problem? What did he want to save us from? Is called the love of money.
He says, emphatically, keep your lives free from it like be the opposite of that, God hates the love of money. The Bible says, if you love money, it will lead you astray and pierce your spirit. You're very soul with many griefs.
So, maybe you're wondering what exactly does that mean?
Let's mean to love money. How do I know if I love money? If you're taking notes, here's my simple. Definition of the love of money. The love of money is when money means more to, you than God.
It's not having money or having God. The question is when push comes to shove, what? Which one do you love more? Which one do you trust more? Which one do you fear losing more? Which one are you most excited about? The Bible is, very concerned about your heart, which guides your hands, and dictates what you do with the money that God puts in it?
For example, let's imagine it's your birthday. And you get two birthday cards from your two, grandmas.
Remember number one, gives you a stock card. She bought from homework and just signs her name. Happy birthday at the bottom. Happy birthday, exclamation point. But inside that very plain card is a check. You put the check over a hundred bucks. Happy birthday. It says, in the subject line love grandma.
Number two, sends you a card. You open an envelope like most 12-year-olds, you open it and shake it. See if anything comes out. Nothing comes out. So you look inside that there's no money there, no gift cards, but what grandma has done is fill this card, on both sides with prayers and promises from God.
Criminal number one is giving you more money. Grab a number two, has given you more faith. Which grandma are you most grateful for?
You grab your Bible? At the same time, you open your banking app.
This one tells you you're in trouble.
The other one tells you, you are not
Do you feel like you're in trouble?
Which the interesting. The boss offers you an opportunity to make good money but you know, it's going to cost you this. The overtime, the time and half the job, the career, you will start to lose the connection. You have with the people of God and the Word of God, you could have more money. Or you could have more of God's will for your life, which one excites you?
What if there's a line that you could cross to make just a little bit more?
Getting paid in cash so we can keep the government out of it. I'm leaving out a detailer to on your W-2s. So you stay in the right tax brackets. That are things that we can do that are not totally honest but they're financially beneficial.
What did you?
When I got my first job back when I was 15 and a half, I worked lawn care. And at the business that I worked for. We always had to punch in when we got to work and we had a punch out for lunch and I had to punch in after lunch, and then we had to punch out once again, when we left for the day. But I quickly learned that the punch clock would be around to the nearest 15 minutes.
Which means that if I showed up at 7:07.
Economy. Like I showed up at seven. And if I took lunch at 11:53,
It runned up like I was working till noon and if I came back at 12:37, it would round seven minutes back. Like I had started working at 12:30 and I left at 2:53. It acted like I worked until three.
By the way, this was my dad's business that I was working for. I've never told him this story, so he's gonna be in the later service. We're gonna see how that was for me, right?
But there was a way it was not the most ethical or honest way that I could make more money.
So when God says, three others as you would want to be treated, But there's another way. To get a little bit more, what? What did we do?
Man is tempting.
Even in a culture like this with prosperity, like, it is always so tempting to want more to have more to spend more to believe. It's it's not enough that we need more. It's so tempting that we sometimes will compromise our spiritual lives honesty, our ethics. And in God who loves us so deeply. He just says, it so bluntly. No, keep your lives free from that be content with what you have in this moment Godliness plus contentment. The Bible says is a great gain. And so God wants us to flee from the love of money to fight against the love of money to trust a better way to live. Because here it is. Now we see all of verse 5 from Hebrews 13, keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because here's why you can do that. Because God has said, never will I leave you and never will I forsake you
And this verse is so epic, If you're looking for your next Bible tattoo, At least that second half. God, like the God of love and power, the God of forgiveness and grace. This God has said, never will I leave you, and never will I forsake you?
Notice the repetition of the verse he could say at once and that would be enough. But he knows how fearful our hearts can be, so he says it twice. That he chooses really strong verbs like leave and forsake then he adds the emphatic, never will, I let that happen? Never will I do that to you and in fact if you spoke Greek Like, the book of Hebrews was originally written in, you would find out that the intensity of these promises turned up about five notches,
Most of you want to turn off your brain right now. You can take about a 30-second break but for those of you who are word nerds like me in the Greek language, this is called by grammar experts, a strong future negation Trying to remember this, when you're studying, Greek back in college, there's a little word that you can put together in Greek that basically don't just say, never, but, never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever will I do that so strongest way. The Greeks could express that something will never happen in the future. God used it, once never will, I leave you and then he used again the same form, never will I forsake? You God is saying, no matter what happens to you financially, no matter how much you have or don't I will never ever, ever, ever ever, ever ever not be by your side, that is a promise that are heavenly father, makes to every single Christian. So gotta say you don't need to be afraid. In fact, look at verse 6, Here's the conclusion. If you believe that strong promise from God, we say with confidence. The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. Looking near mortals do to me.
It's not such a boss promise. What you have to say it? Like you're in the Lord of the Rings. What could me a mortal student me? Like if you love money?
The answer is a whole lot.
Like the government could spend too much and then inflation would go up and then our currency would be cut in half if I need more stuff, someone could take it. Someone could borrow it and forget to return it. Like, there's a million things that can happen. That will totally make you panic and freak out. But if your hope is not in promises, that money makes, but instead the promises that God makes we say with confidence. The word is my helper. I will not be afraid. My God has said, never will I leave you, and never will I forsake you. Listen, if you want to sleep well at night and wake up with less fear.
The answer is not giving you 50k.
The answer is giving you a firmer trust in the promises that God has already made to you.
He doesn't have to work extra hours. You don't have to somehow escape your past credit score like what you need to live with peace is not out of reach. It's simple trust that the God who made this promise has to keep it because he's God
So we sit with confidence. The Lord is my helper. I believe that and I will not be afraid.
Let me compare this word to this wallet. My wife lent me this old wallet of first I put inside four dollars, that's all the cash I had my house. Did you know that your wallets once to talk to you?
I'm not sure how many talks I wasn't sure how to do the impression of money today, but we're gonna give them my best shot, you know, you're your wallet, you actually put words in your wallets mouth says you. Have enough of me. Yeah, you need more of me just if they just he was. What if this happens? What if that happens, what if they cut back your hours? What if inflation goes out? Like money is talking talking. If you had more of me, you'd be happy if you just had a little bit more, you'd be content money preaches.
Come on. It does not keep its promises.
Some of your old enough like me to know this when when you're young, you think. Oh, if if I could just make five figures, if I could just make 15,000, if I could just make 25,000 and then as you could older, maybe that happens to you. To the fears disappear.
Now, because money only has one sermon you need more.
Doesn't bless you doesn't save you, you just get used to a new level of prosperity in your heart end up in the exact same place. It was before.
But this, when the Bible starts talking to about God, what he is about, who he is about his love promises, like never ever, ever. Will I leave you? The Lord is my helper. What, why would I be afraid? God is not just here. He's here to help you.
And if you listen to that, in fact, if you plant that promise deep in your heart, you don't have to panic like people who are twice as rich as you.
You can have the kind of piece at the apostle Paul discovered if God gives me everything or nothing if I'm in a palace or a prison cell, my heart's good because I know who is by my side and I know how that God feels about me.
If ignorance, here's the first, big promise I want to plant into your heart is that God is here.
According to the words of this tax, he's not just here, but he's here to help.
God in our relationship with him is not some distant friend or some VIP celebrity got us constantly present with his people. We always see him. But he said is emphatically, as he can in his word. I will never ever. Ever leave you alone, Jesus promised. Surely, I will be with you always. That's why none of you need more.
So, you can be content. It's how you can live without fear.
And hopefully pastors like me can help you with that.
For seven is interesting in this context. It says, remember your leaders who spoke the Word of God to you Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitates their faith.
The street commands there for you and there's one big encouragement for me. It says you should remember your leaders who spoke the word too. So don't forget about your pastors. Remember them second consider like really sit down and think about the outcome of their way of life, okay? This is how they choose to live and this is the result of it and then if it's a good result, you should finally imitate their faith.
Pastors have a lot of jobs but apparently one of our jobs that I'm going to try to do a better job at is reminding you that you don't need more to live with peace and joy.
You don't need more clothes to be happy.
You don't need more toys. This Christmas to be content.
Some of the kids are so mad right now. I don't sabotage my Christmas past. Let's you don't need a nicer car or a bigger home. Those things are fine, they're not sinful, you can have them. But please, please, please, do not believe that. Somehow this toy is going to do with the last one. Did not Don't think that this sweater this new pair of shoes. This no I want you to live with a kind of contentment. I want to model that the best I can I want to try to prove to you. It's not just because I'm lazy although that's part of it that you could wear the same clothes like every day for years and still be happy. That's possible. And you can drive a car with 255,000 miles on it. The air conditioner doesn't work and you can sweat with Jesus and enjoy life. Like you, you don't need the stuff, I'm not judging you. If you got the stuff, your house might be bigger or smaller than mine, your car might be older and newer. Some guy was he's talking big after the first services, 255,000, faster, I got 332. So right the point is, if we can consider the outcome of the way of life of fellow Christians to just look at them and say, wow, I think they have a good life and it's not because they got a lot of good stuff.
They discovered as a New Testament, says, the secret of being content, which isn't a bigger salary. It's a bigger faith in the promises of God.
Friends, our last verse for today, reminds us that those promises are all ours per seed. Says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
What? Pastors like me? What? All of God's people like, you are trying to remind ourselves is that Jesus doesn't change.
That's what allows us to live with confidence and say because of Jesus, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid because of Jesus. God will keep this promise. Never ever, will I leave you and never ever, ever ever. Left, forsake. You
You think 2,000 years ago Jesus was
He met people who were all messed up when it came to money. I think Matthew's a tax collector just greedy, selling out his honesty, just to put more in his pocket. Jesus walk up to him and said, God here, man. No, it stopped. He looked the man in the eye and he said you too, follow me.
So Matthew, did He throw a party with all his greedy money? Love and tax-collecting friends came and Jesus didn't bounce. Because the party was morally beneath his standards and said, he stayed showed love and he offered forgiveness. And this passage tells us that Jesus has not changed. He doesn't see people with tons of credit card debts who were working hours on Sundays and neglecting their own souls. He doesn't say, get out of here.
Instead he invites us and he forgives us. He helps us, he saves us. He hasn't changed. He loved. Surprising people 2,000 years ago and he loves surprising people. Today loves you and he loves me, he forgave people of their sins back then. It doesn't change. That's why he forgives them even now today.
And this is what I want you to believe. This is what I'm reminding you. My own heart, that God has made a promise through his son, Jesus Christ to forgive us of our greed, to erase our love of money to make us rich in spiritual and eternal matters. And here's the richest, promise of all that God is right here.
That's why I have a free gift for you today. Maybe some of these in your program. When you come in, could you grab it? Take it out for a second, this little postcard we printed one. For each of you is the homework to help your heart. On the back of this postcard are the five big ideas. The five promises that we're going to study in the sermon series with the simple Bible. Passage that guides each one and your job before the series is over is to memorize all five of these promises. There will be pop quizzes. You have been warned and prepared. Some of you can't handle getting like a bee so you're gonna study like crazy. So I'm hoping it motivates you by that, you know, I want you to, you know, curl this up in the cup holder of your car. And as you're driving to work, just to repeat this promise, God is here. Never will I leave? You never will. I forsake you Hebrews 13, verse 5.
When you're shaving or doing your hair or makeup in the morning to just stick this by the mirror and recite the promises of God, I want you to bury the trustworthy promises of God deep within your soul. So when that moment comes, when you're mechanic says, we need to talk And your wife texts you there, wisdom teeth and you open your banking nap and say,
In those moments, your heart will respond, it will push back on the panic and say it's gonna be okay. I'm gonna be okay. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus. The God who wants? What's best for me? Is not far away. He's right here. And it's here to help.
Yeah, there's an old legend. That says, there's a certain initiation right by, which a Cherokee Indian boy becomes a man.
It's rather leads amount far from the village through the woods where they have hunted, you know, beasts of a prayer together. He finds a clearing in the woods with a simple stump, the father makes a son, sit down. You look some in the eye and he says, son, if you can sit right here and not get up. If you don't move until the sun comes up, if you can make it in this spot, through the night, you will officially have become one of us, a man.
Before he leaves, the father takes a blindfold.
Wraps around the sun's eyes ties it off.
The boy takes a deep breath as he hears the crunch of his father's footsteps walking away.
He says any weights. And at first, he's so confident. Is going to become a man and just a few hours. Until the first howl comes from the woods.
And the crunch of the leaves behind him, he remembers the size of the animals that he and his father used to hunt. And the panic starts to set in things about getting up tearing the blindfold off, to see what's hunting him but trusting the promise of his father. He waits Any way it's in a minute passes than an hour and our returns to two and then four until finally, finally the first peak of the sunrise comes up and pierces the blindfold. And a kid relieved takes the blindfold off, he gets up and he looks at the edge of the woods and who does he see?
His dad.
The father had not left him alone to fight the things. He could not see. Instead he was right by his side. Keeping the promise that he had made to his son years ago. I will never leave you. I'll never forsake you.
If, friends, the Christian life is kind of like being that kid Can't see what's going to happen to you financially. We don't know what's tomorrow will bring for our jobs. Our career is our cars, this nation or the economy, what we do know Is that even if we can't see him are heavenly father is not way, way far away in heaven, he is just right there. In fact, you wanted you to know, it's so bad. He said this, “Never will. I leave you. Never will I forsake you.”
So we say with confidence still, Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. Looking mere mortals do to me.
Believe that. And you will live in peace. You will live in the promised land.
That's right.
Thank you so much for speaking about your presence.
I think you got that. You don't just hang out with poor people or desperate for your help and you don't just hang out with rich people who have many advantages in this life. You promise to be with all of your people. I've got most of us know by experience that getting more money, does not make us more content. It doesn't increase our joy for very long. We get used to wealth, really fast. I pray that your spirit will help us to live out these words to be content with what we have. To be marketed at for the millionth time, but this time not to believe those promises to know that only Jesus can make us happy for long. Please save us from the love of money. Release us in free us from its grip. It's so hard in a materialistic culture like ours. Help me as a pastor to be a good example of someone who doesn't need more to be content and live with joy. And then the father in the hand helps us to remember no matter what tomorrow brings that you're going to be there and if you're there that's enough. If you're all these things in the beautiful name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, the one who is the same yesterday and today, and forever. And all of God's people said, Amen.
