“Revival: Precursors to Revival” Rev 2: 1-5

When I say the word “Revival” what comes to your mind? For some folks at Grace it may have been the stories of the Revival pastor who set a goal of having 300 people in worship one Sunday, only to find that he was a few short - so he went out into the street to get folks to come in. For Ohio and Sanborn it may be memories of Revival Services - some that went on for a weekend, some that went on for week, where guest preachers came and proclaimed the word of God.

However, the root of the English word revival comes from the Latin word re-vivere, which translates to something like reinvigorate, restore to life, to become strong and healthy. And  certainly that may happen during a revival service with a guest preacher bringing the word of God in a profound way. And it may happen when new folks come to Jesus Christ, which is beautiful, exciting, and profound all mixed into one. But for the next few weeks I want to talk about the scope of revival, personal revival, revival in our churches, and yes revival that reaches beyond ourselves to bring new people to know and love Jesus. 

Today, I want to start with personal revival. The truth in our lives is that relationships change over time. They wax and wane. They go through seasons of passion and other seasons where we may not be quite as close as we would like. It happens in all relationships - friendships, marriages, parent-child. And yes, even our faith lives. 

Here’s the thing - in order to grow, we need to know two things - where we are and where we want to be. Waxing and waning in themselves aren’t a bad thing. We can’t always be on the highest of high with Jesus. But we need to be able to accurately evaluate how it is with our souls and be able to say if that is really where we want to be.

The Book of Revelations is interesting in that it is written to a group of seven churches in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) instead of one singular church. These were the churches that were at the center of Christendom. They were known for being vibrant and growing and faithful - and then something happened. Now the author has a message for them, to call them back to revival. 

Today’s scripture passage is directed at the church at Ephesus. Ephesus had a deep, spiritually rich history. It was one of the places that Paul put down his tent the longest, for two whole years. Mary the mother of Jesus lived there in her later years of life. But that richness was being lost. They were focusing on who they once were instead of who they truly were in that current day. So the author of Revelations has a difficult word for them - the charge that he has against them is that they lost their first love. They lost their passion.

The problem in Ephesus wasn’t that they were in a waning time. It was that they lost their love. Lost it. Abandoned it. Made the church about something other then what it was intended to be. 

The modern equivalent to the church in Ephesus would be a church that has a lot going on - a lot of activities, a full calendar. A church that is busy, but is not spiritual. I can hear the arguments now, but Pastor Michelle, what churches do is all for Jesus. And I agree that may be true in philosophy, but not always in practice. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the doing, that we fail to evaluate if we are really bearing fruit or not. If we are having a lot of spiritual activity without much spiritual growth.

This past year I was blessed to be one of nineteen young clergy from around the United States selected for the Lewis Fellowship program through Wesley Seminary. Throughout the year we met three times to learn from skilled teachers, each others, and at particular churches who are faithfully following God. At one of the churches in Washington DC in April I was really struck by the senior pastor and how she talked about her first church as the senior pastor. The church leadership wrote down everything the church did and intentionally prayed over it. They asked God if that activity was still bearing fruit and if it wasn’t, they celebrated what it once had been, blessed it and released it.

Friends, sometimes for revival in our personal lives and the lives of the church we need a little more blessing and releasing and a little less holding on. We can probably think of programs that were incredibly fruitful in the past, bringing folks to Jesus Christ, that just aren’t bearing the same fruit today. Its not because they weren’t good, its because the ways people connect with Jesus may just have changed. The wrappings may need to be changed, but the message remains the same.

Why do folks lose their first love? Why does the passion go away? Honestly, for a lot of Christians its burn out. We are focused on so many things that aren’t the most important thing that we become exhausted. We feel overwhelmed to the point where we lose interest and motivation. And when our motivation falls away, so can our allegiance and devotion to God. 

The tricky thing about being a busy Christian or a busy church or even in the midst of burnout is that we can look good from the outside, but it isn’t reflective of our heart on the inside. Rev. Adam Hamilton describes this phenomenon as “people going through the motions of Christianity but lacking the fruit of the Spirit”.

So how can we experience revival in our spiritual lives instead of burnout? How can we keep first things first? An example of renewing our love of Jesus Christ can be seen in the roots of early Methodism. Methodism actually began as a revival movement of the Church in Britain, but it quickly spread as folks began deeply connecting with Jesus in a way that was meaningful to them. 

At the heat of Methodism we think of folks like John Wesley, the founder of the revival movement, and Charles Wesley, who expressed faith through songs, many of which are still in our hymnals. But I want to lift up someone this morning who sometimes gets left out of the narrative of the revival movement - Susanna Wesley - mother of John and Charles and others. Susanna who taught her children scriptures in the home. Susanna who spent one hour a week with each of her children talking about their hopes, dreams, fears, and faith and asking them how it was going for them spiritually.

In fact, when Charles came to know Christ in college, he claimed that it was the prayers of Susanna that laid the foundation for his conversion. Friends, one of the precursors to revival are the prayers of our elders. Mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, who are on their knees for the folks that we love. And staying there until folks come to know the Lord. We need folks of prayer and folks who will mentor our children, youth, and converts. 

A few months ago, as we were beginning to plan for the camping season, I met with the camp dean I work with who also is a school teacher. We were talking about bullying and how tough it is to be a youth today. Somehow we got around to how we can teach our young people hard lessons that go beyond math and reading, lessons around how to treat one another and how to make difficult decisions. And my camp dean laid it out. He said we need more mentors. Mentors who invest in our youth, not out of obligation, but out of concerns and love for them. In the church, such mentoring is rooted in prayer. It is hard to lose our first love when we are connected through a vibrant and persistent prayer life.

Friends, revival starts with us. And it starts with a difficult, personal question - how is it with your soul? Where are you in your faith life and where do you want to be? And how do the ways you invest your time pass on that faith to others? May we be a people of revival. Its our history and it propels us into our future. Amen. 

“Earn. Save. Give: Give All You Can” Proverbs 11: 25

There is something about giving that changes who we are. Changes us from the inside out. For the last several weeks we have been exploring practical biblical foundations around finances in the book of Proverbs coupled with the wisdom of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. We end today with probably the most transformative of the principles - giving. 

John Wesley was not the only church leader who had thoughts on Biblical stewardship. Martin Luther, father of the Lutheran church, said that during our walk with Christ we experience three different types of conversion. The first is conversion of the heart. Then conversion of the mind. But the last and perhaps most difficult is conversion of the purse. In order to truly give our whole lives to Jesus, we need to surrender our financial habits and practices to him as well. That is the root of the spiritual discipline of stewardship.

If we want to see an example of someone who had multiple conversions in scripture, we need to look no further for Zacchaeus. Known perhaps best from the children’s song that is written about the “wee little man is he” - Zacchaeus is known for a couple of things - he was short, and he climbed a tree to see Jesus. 

But there is so much for to Zacchaeus then that. If we look in the gospel of Luke, chapter 19 we find part of his story. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. We have some wonderful folks in our communities who serve as tax collectors today, a public position for the public good. Not so during time times of Jesus. Tax collectors collected what was owed to the Roman government, which was often well above what people could afford and still live, and they didn’t see the benefits of those monies at all. Then in addition to that you have the tax collector themselves who would tell people they owed even more money then the exhorbenet amount that was given to the Romans, so that they could keep that extra money for themselves, growing rich off of the backs of the poor. 

So tax collectors were not well liked and Zacchaeus was apparently a tax collector among tax collectors. We are told that he was chief tax collector (which let’s just be honest folks did not become for their sense of compassion) and that he was very rich. So he charged folks a lot. He had heard about this Jesus person coming to town and he wanted to see. Being short this was an obstacle so he set aside all of his pride and climbed a tree. He could see Jesus but he didn’t think Jesus could see him. But Jesus could see him and he stopped and told Zacchaeus that he, Jesus, was coming to his house that very day.

Zacchaeus was so touched by Jesus that he had his heart changed. And a heart change led to a mind change - it was no longer about how much money he could extort from other people. And that mind change led to a change of his purse, as he told Jesus that he was going to give away half of his possessions to the poor and pay back everyone he wronged four fold. Zacchaeus was deeply transformed by his interaction with Jesus Christ, where he felt loved and accepted.

Friends, true salvation doesn’t just change our hearts, it changes our lives, our very priorities. Being accepted and loved by the Savior makes us want to make sure others come to know that deep, transformative love in their own lives as well. In Jesus Christ we catch the vision that life is about so much more than what we have made it. Its about more than the things of the world. Its about the Kingdom of God that touches hearts and changes lives. 

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this - but we give towards the vision. I want you to stop and consider some of the charities and agencies that you support. Why do you do so? Is it because they have a compelling vision or perhaps have touched your life in a powerful way?

I give to a host of different organizations, but they all have a mission that I believe in. Places like the Young Clergy Women Project which advocates and supports clergy women under the age of 40 around the world, offering them a network where they can grow in the leadership. And the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), which is often one of the first organizations on the ground when a disaster hits and one of the last to leave. They bring hope in the midst of life-changing situations. I believe in those visions. So I support them. 

For the church, our visions is to make disciples and represent the priorities of the Kingdom of God. We give to that vision because we believe in it. We give to that vision because we are a part of it. We give to that vision because our lives have been changed. We don’t give because we believe through giving we earn our salvation, we give out of a grateful response to the grace of God in our lives. 

But giving often requires sacrifice Zacchaeus sacrificed his pride when he climbed up in that tree. What we are willing to sacrifice for Jesus Christ? What are we willing to give towards the Kingdom of God? 

Friends, we don’t give out of obligation, we give out of gratitude and by giving our lives are further changed. We read in Proverbs that a generous person will be enriched. A generous person will be transformed further because they are reflecting the priorities of the Kingdom of God in this world. In other words, giving makes a difference in our lives.

One of the things that I particularly treasure about the United Methodist church is that we give together. Part of what comes in to our offering plate goes to shares of ministry, which supports mission and ministries around the world. It supports educating young folks to follow their call as well as African University. It helps bring health and wholeness to communities as well as teach tools to sustain that wholeness. The theme of these four years in the annual conference is Better Together - and our offering is truly better together. It reminds us of the impact that we can have together as a local church and beyond when our gifts are used to God’s honor and glory together.

But here’s the thing - when Wesley was talking about giving, he wasn’t talking about writing the occasional check to a church or a charity. He was talking about participating in the Kingdom of God, caring about what God cares about and living into what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And we do that through stewardship. Stewardship isn’t just something that we do - its a lifetime journey with God. Its about changing our financial priorities. Its a spiritual discipline that changes us.

Friends, we are called to be good stewards of what God has given us. We are called to earn all we can. Save all we can. And yes, give all we can, knowing that all we hold is first God’s and is to be returned to God. Let us give to that which honors God. Let us bless God with our gifts for something bigger than ourselves! Amen. 

“Earn. Save. Give: Save All You Can” Proverbs 13:11

Saving. I remember the first bank account that I ever had - it was a savings account with a passbook. You took your money to the bank with your little green passbook - you put the money in and it was saved to spend another day. 

But I also learned about saving in my kindergarten Sunday School class. When it was your birthday, you were given as many pennies as you were old to put into a beautiful piggy bank. I never knew what happened to those pennies, even as I continued the tradition years later as the assistant Sunday School teacher, but it taught us important lessons around money - specifically around saving money and that what you were given wasn’t yours to keep.

Unfortunately, we don’t talk about savings very much today in terms of money, and as little as we talk about it, we do it even less. America runs on a buy now, pay later philosophy. In fact, we tend to spend more than we earn on this credit-heavy strategy, which often leads to financial burden. This the opposite of what Wesley encouraged when he stated that after you earn all you can we are to save all we can.

The truth is saving is difficult. Its something we like the idea of, having something for the future, but its hard to put into practice. We are much better at spending than saving. But in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew we find this beautiful passage where Jesus is instructing those around him to think about their treasure and think about where it is. Let’s take a moment - what comes to your mind when you think of the word treasure? For a lot of folks it money. Maybe even gold coins spilling out of an open chest. Or maybe it a heirloom that has been passed down from one generation to the next. Or the inheritance that you have received or are hoping to pass on to your kids and grandkids. Jesus tells us to not hoard that type of treasure here on earth, but instead to put our treasure in heaven. 

Okay, but that’s easier said then done. What does heavenly treasure look like? I believe its the fruit of how we are stewards of what God has blessed us with. Wesley said that “we are to be faithful stewards of our souls, our bodies, our speech, our hands and feet, our talent, our time, and our money.” That’s a lot of resources that God has trusted us with. How are we using our words to share the good news of Jesus? How are we using our hands and feet to serve others? What does our time say about where our priorities are? What can we do with our talents to proclaim the Kingdom of God? And how are we using our money to bless Gods name?

In the Gospel of Luke (chapter 12) we find a parable about a foolish man who has a large crop one year. So large that he doesn’t know what to do with it. After some thought he deiced that he was going to tear down his barns to build bigger ones for himself for his crop. When you read or hear the story you cannot help but be struck by how in control the man feels. This is his big crop. His big win. He thought that he was responsible for his own good fortune and therefore he could do with it whatever he pleases.

However, this is not what we believe as Christians. At the heart of Wesley’s Biblical understanding about money is the belief that none of it really belongs to us at all. Instead, we are called to be good stewards of what God has placed in our hands.

When I was in first grade there was a stuffed animal that was passed from one person to the next over the weekends during the school year. I’m sure there was a lesson to be learned about responsibility. But what I remembered is that even though you may have had a lot of stuffed animals of your own at home, there was something special about this one, because you were being trusted to care for it. 

Friends, we are being asked to care for a lot more then a stuffed animal. But in order to truly care for what has been entrusted to us, we need to get our mindset straight. What we earn from the job that God has given us the talents to perform is not first and foremost ours, but Gods. Everything we do with those earnings - from how we save to how we spend - should be done with God in mind. 

But how can we make that mental and spiritual shift around money? First, we need to take time to examine where our money is going. This is more than a list of the checks you write or the transactions that come out of your bank account, but actually seeing on paper, how you spend the money that is earned. 

Next, we need to come up with a plan. A plan to save and a plan to spend. I love the piece of scripture from Proverbs we shared together this morning - riches gotten quickly will dwindle, but those who acquire them gradually become wealthy. I cannot tell you how many people have told me what they would do if they hit the lottery or find the next get-rich quick scheme. We love the idea of getting rich as quick as possible. But Proverbs says thats not where our focus should be - because that type of wealth is temporary. Quickly received and quickly spent. Instead, we need to focus on what is lasting and have a plan to get there.

There is a wonderful story of Osceola McCarty. Osceola was born in 1908 and only finished her elementary education. After that she started ironing shirts for folks in the neighborhood and putting a little bit aside in a savings account. For 74 years she washed and ironed clothes. Then one day she presented $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi to start a scholarship fund. She never was able to go to school, but she wanted that for others. Folks were shocked. They asked her how in the world she was able to save that much money and this was her response: “It wasn’t hard. I didn’t buy things that I didn’t need… the Lord helped me and he will help you too.”

One of my favorite novels is a Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which takes place in the early 1900s. It tells the story of the Nolans, who are seeking a better life for themselves. One of the things that Mrs. Nolan is encouraged to do by her mother is to save money by nailing a tin can to the floor of her closet wherever they live. Only every time it seems like they are making progress, something comes up where they need to break into the can and start over again. Mrs. Nolan realized the struggle to live into the future with the present pressing in. 

Changing the future is what Mrs. Nolan wants so much for her children, but often the present caused her to lose sight of the future. Saving like Oscola this takes a farsighted view - choosing to say that how we use and save money now can have an impact on the future. Another way to frame saving is to ask the question, how will what I leave behind bear witness to my Christian faith?

Because that’s truly what this is all about, friends. When scripture talks about money, and especially when Jesus talks about money it is most often connected to the state of our soul. The place where we have the abundant life rooted in proclaiming the Kingdom of God with all we are and all we have. There is a lot of talk about the good life in society now - a good life that often comes from accumulating things. But think back to that passage from Matthew - where your treasure is your heart will be also. We need to stop letting our earthly treasures and temporal definition of the good life define us. Instead, Christ is calling us to seek out the abundant life - rooted in God’s love and proclaiming God’s truth and grace. Brothers and sisters, how can we save all we can so that the message of Jesus Christ is seen through us, even when we are gone from this earth, because we have been faithful stewards of all that which was entrusted to us. 

“Earn. Save. Give: Earn All You Can” Proverbs 10:4

We are now in the second week of our sermon series about how as Christians we relate to money. Last week we started looking at some pieces of John Wesley’s sermon “The Use of Money” in our current context and we will continue doing so today.

When we talk about a Christian approach to money we cannot help but talk about scripture. The problem with money, or any other topic, is that too often we talk about what we think scripture says about money without actually reading it, and as a result, we get all twisted inside. Or we take a scripture out of the context in which it was presented and turn it around to try to make it applicable to us.

When I was little, my brothers and I had a lovely couple who would baby sit us each week. They were like a third set of grandparents. When we arrived at their homes their were rituals and patterns to how we spent our time. One such ritual came after dinner but before our dad picked us up - we would put together puzzles. Only I wasn’t very good at puzzles. I was the type of kid that would try to bend a puzzle piece into submission instead of looking for where it actually fit into the picture. Far too often I think this is how we treat the beautiful gift of scripture. 

Scripture does not say that money is bad. It does not say that money is the root of evil. What it does say we need to stray from the love of money. Do you catch the difference? There is something distinctly different between loving money and using money. What might that look like in today’s world?

I think in order to have a right relationship to money, we need to have a right relationship with work. Why do we work? Most people would say that we work to get money. And on one hand that is certainly true, we need money to survive. But we also work in order to live into our God given call and passion. When we work simply for the sake of work, we sometimes let work replace our love for God. Slowly our need for more and more things, which can be called materialism, seeps into our heart until we let things replace God as well. Whenever we start to see money as something more than to provide for our needs and to do good for others, we run the risk of letting money become more than it is truly for. 

My dad and I recently had a discussion about how we misuse money and the scripture associated with it. He has taught Sunday School and Small Groups for years and is amazing at it. He was telling me how he responds when folks start to quote Jesus saying that we will always have the poor with us. He immediately has them flip to Deuteronomy 15 - which Jesus is quoting from. There we read “Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.” The Pharisees, disciples, and folks present would have known just from the few words he was quoting that he was telling them to give liberally. Give liberally for Jesus - because for the disciples he may not always be present. And for us we want to be the best reflection of him in the world we can be. 

Just like we often manipulate the words of Jesus, we also misunderstand and misuse today’s teaching from Proverbs. We hear - that a slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes the rich. We would be tempted to immediately blame the poor for poverty - especially systemic poverty - but that isn’t what Wesley wants us to see. Instead Wesley wants us to ask what is truly rich and truly poor. How does God want us to work in a way that makes us not just rich in terms of money, but rich in spirit. 

First, Wesley tells us: Gain All You can by Honest Industry. Use All Possible Diligence in Your Calling. The truth is not just pastor-folks are called friends. We all are called. We are called to live lives worthy of our calling. I have a sister in law I have no doubt her call in this life is to teaching. She has the patience of a saint and wants children to learn. I have another sister in law who is called to be an occupational therapist and rejoices with folks as they make progress towards healing and wholeness. That is a call. We don’t earn money for the sake of money, but the sake of the higher purpose that money is used for - living into our calling. We can have all the money in the world, friends, but if its just about the money and not about the call - have we lost something in the process? 

Two,  We are taught to: Gain all You can by common sense. Wesley says, “You should be continually learning, from the experience of others, or from your own experience… to do everything you have to do better today than you did yesterday”. All too often we don’t strive to do things better today than yesterday. In fact, we act downright foolish. We are foolish when we live today like the sum of our lives is what we own. What material things we acquire or want. We act foolish when we think the point of money is simply to have more money. We act foolish when we think that how we spend our money doesn’t matter. We act foolish when we think that our money has nothing to do with God. The truth is we are called to be wise stewards. To use our money to do good. The truth is money is a gift from God but we are absolutely responsible to God for how we use it. Do the ways we gain and spend money show common, God honoring, sense and a commitment to God and our neighbor?

Third, we are to Gain All you can without paying more for it than its worth. What does it gain for us, brothers and sisters, if we earn money but lose things that are dear to us in the process? A few years ago I got sick. Like really sick. After countless doctors appointments and medical tests I was diagnosed with a stress-related illness. As soon as I cut back on my work I began the process of becoming healthy again. Friends, God does not call us to work at the expense of our health. 

God also doesn’t call us to work to the point where we are always working. We need Sabbath. I’ve stated before that I grew up in a home where Sabbath couldn’t always be Sunday because of my mom’s job. But we still were intentional about a day of rest. We need a way of living that breaks the cycle of constantly being on the go and at the demand of others. We are called to work but also to have a time of rest for the sake of our soul. 

Friends, we are to earn all we can but in a way that preserves who God has created us to be.  Let us seek to live in a way that honors God. 

“Earn. Save. Give: We Don’t Need More Money” Proverbs 3:13-14

If you could ask God for anything, absolutely anything, and know that you would receive it, what would you ask for? King Solomon had just such an opportunity and asked God for wisdom. In other words instead of asking for more of what he already had, he instead asked for the ability to know how to manage and use what we gather and have. Wisdom can also be translated to mean an understanding heart. 

I have to wonder how many of us, if in King Solomon’s place today, would ask for the same thing. My guess is that most folks wouldn’t ask for wisdom or an understanding heart. Instead they would ask for money, comfort, and fame or the ability to succeed. In the current culture it seems like this is seen as the trifecta which leads to happiness.

But look around. How many folks actually seem happy? I know a lot of folks who are working multiple jobs. Or working more hours. Or putting in overtime. All in the hopes that the money pay out will make them happy, when more often than not it simply leaves them exhausted. Brothers and sisters, exhaustion is not a sign of happiness.

We are now entering into a four week sermon series about money based on Pastor James Harnish’s book Earn. Save. Give: Wesley’s Simple Rules for Money. All too often we like to bury our heads in the sand and plug our ears when the pastor talks about money. We dread when stewardship season comes around, but honestly I believe that is because we don’t talk about money enough as a church. And I’m not talking about the call for folks to dig deeper and give money to the church, though tithing is surely Biblical. We just don’t talk enough about some of the practical wisdom that God has in scripture for us around the topic of money. So for the next four weeks we are going to dig through the wisdom scriptures, Proverbs, to see what it says about money and how we can apply that to our daily lives. Starting with the topic this week - We don’t need more money, what we need is more wisdom. 

Let me predicate what I’m going to say with some very important things. One, I truly believe that there are people in the world that do not have enough, including some folks in the United States. I believe that as we have got caught up in the hustle of getting ahead for our own family, sometimes we do injustices to other families. And that is why we need groups like the United Nations to draw our attention away from ourselves and into the bigger picture with their seventeen sustainable development goals which calls for things like no poverty, zero hunger, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, and decent work and economic growth to name a few.

Two, I believe that people should be fairly compensated for what they work. While the cost of living has skyrocketed in the United States in recent years around things like utility costs and groceries and gas, the minimum wage has not reflected that change. In this country we have substituted a minimum wage for a living wage, but they are not the same thing.

However, for better or worse, most folks in United Methodist Churches around this country today would firmly declare themselves to be in the middle class somewhere. We have a pretty broad range of what that means. For some folks that means making $35,000 for others it means making more than $100,000 and I recently heard at a training I attended that some folks making as much as $450,000 describe themselves as being in the middle class. So in that wide range most folks who are United Methodist find themselves. Keeping in mind I still believe folks deserve to be paid a living, fair, and just wage for what they do, most people don’t need more money, they need to be wiser with the money they already have. 

Peter Storey once said that John Wesley had a, “Gospel-shaped behavior towards money and riche that was predicated by his commitment to the poor.” John Wesley, like the book of Proverbs, had a really practical approach to money where folks were taken care of and also given the tools to be good stewards of what they have. We need to reclaim some of those tools today that he first presented in his sermon “The Use of Money.”

We don’t look at the book of Proverbs very often in worship, but I want to turn there today and hear what it has to say for us about wisdom and wealth. Happy are those who have wisdom because that income is better than silver and has a return better than God. 

I can hear it now - that’s all well and good Pastor Michelle but what does that look like today? What meaning does that have in my life? Friends, the Bible teaches us that how we relate to money reflects where our heart is at with God. Where is your heart at today? Because for a whole lot of us our hearts are filled with worry about tomorrow and we keep trying to get more in order to dig ourselves out of the whole that we are in. And that does not reflect what Proverbs is trying to tell us. 

Wisdom, as it relates to finances, speaks about how we manage and use what we have. That’s a pretty mundane, every day thing, brothers and sisters, but that is exactly the type of thing that the book of Proverbs speaks to. Its about ordinary life experiences and how we can use wisdom to live our lives in a powerful way. So what does wisdom around money look like?

First, it is wise to use our talents to earn an incomes. I was sharing at a Bible Study at Ohio a few months ago that God gave Adam and Eve work before sin entered the picture. All too often we think that work is punishment for sin, and yes, Adam was told that he would have to toil by his hand as part of the fall. But after his creation out of the dust of the earth and the breath of God, Adam was given work to tend to the garden and name the animal and to be a steward of all that he sees. Work can give our lives meaning. However, too many folks today are working simply for a paycheck and not at what they are passionate about. If you aren’t passionate about what you do as a job is there a place you can pour yourself into as a volunteer in order to use your gifts and talents for the honor of God’s Kingdom?

Second, it is wise to live within our means. Part of the story of the prodigal son that we don’t dwell on very often is how he squandered everything he had been given. Here he had made this outrageous demand to be given his part of the estate while his father was alive and turned it into money, which he quickly spent on everything that you could imagine. And then it was gone. He lived outside of his means to the point where he had to go and work on a pig farm just to get some money for food. Friends, all too often we live outside of our means as well, mostly by going into debt. Massive debt. Debt with high interest rates that can make us feel like we are drowning. Living within our means means spending less than what we make. But in a society that has trained us to believe we can have whatever we want, when we want it, that message doesn’t sink in very far.

Third, it is wise to manage our money to be debt free. As I write this sermon I carry some debt. A car loan. Student loans. And some credit card debt. However, I also have a plan to work towards being debt free. In Proverbs we find the statement that whoever borrows money will be burned, and that is certainly the age that we are living in right now. More debt that we can even think of paying off, making minimum payments and watching interest rates soar. Debt isn’t necessarily bad, but when we take on debt we need a plan to get out of it. 

Brothers and sisters, Proverbs shows us that wisdom isn’t something we just receive in most instances, other than King Solomon, its something we learn and live into daily. What does wisdom around finances look like for you and how is God calling you to be able to manage ands your money in a faithful way? Amen.