SoulShift

The following post is the 5th sermon in our SoulShift Series. Enjoy! As always, if you're in the area on Sunday, we'd love to see you in Church!

 

 

We are in the middle of an 8 week series called: SoulShift.

            A SoulShift is a change in the deepest part of our being… that makes us more like Christ and less like our old selves.” (DeNeff)

            God wants to make a change deep in our soul, because the soul is the place that God does His best work.

            The psalmist said that God “restores my soul” (Psalm 23:3, NIV)  

            The place where God will begin to make you more like Jesus is deep in your soul.

            So, how is your soul?

            Have you been allowing the Lord, thru His written and spoken Word, to speak to your soul?

        Are you making a shift from Me to you, which is a shift from focusing on yourself to focusing on others?

Are you making a shift from Slave to Child? This is a shift in identity from serving God to loving God.

Are you making a shift from Seen to Unseen? This is a shift from embracing things that are temporary to embracing things that are eternal.

            God doesn’t intend for us to give our hearts to Him and live any old way that we want.

God wants us to be minded like Jesus, and love him with our heart, mind, strength and soul.

            Today, we want to look at the 4^th shift that should occur in the life of the follower of Jesus Christ: from Consumer to Steward.

            “This is a shift in ownership from acquiring things for ourselves to offering what we have to God and others.” (SS chapter 4)

            Some of you might be shifting in your seat right now. You might be thinking: ‘oh great! The preacher is going to talk about money… I picked a great day to come to church!”

            If this is what you are thinking, it might surprise you to know that the Bible as a lot to say about money and possessions.

            In fact, our next sermon series will be “what God has to say about money” I KNOW you will not want to miss that series!!

            In his book Your Money counts, Howard Dayton tells us that “Sixteen of Jesus’ 38 parables were concerned with how to handle money and possessions.

        Indeed, Jesus Christ said more about money than about any other subject.

            “The Bible offers over 500 verses on prayer, fewer than 500 verses on faith, but more than 2,350 verses on money and possessions.

            The Lord said a lot about it because He wants us to know His perspective on this crucial area of life.” (DeNeff, 2011,77)

            If the Bible devotes over 2300 verses to money and possessions, it’s probably a good thing for us to talk about money and possessions.

            So, don’t shift in your seat, allow God to make this shift in your soul!

            As we pick up our story of Jesus and His disciples, we find Jesus making His way to Jerusalem, when He is approached by a young man, who “fell on his knees before him.” (Mark 10:17a, NIV)

            This young man assumed a posture of respect and submission before he asked Jesus a question.

            He said to Jesus: “Good teacher….what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Mark 10:17b, NIV)

            Jesus stopped this man and asked him why he called Jesus: “Good teacher”, when only God was good. Was this man equating Jesus with God?

            But you notice that this young man says nothing in response. He simply waits for the answer to his question, of what he had to do to inherit eternal life.

            Jesus responded by repeating the second half of the Ten Commandments, particularly the ones that involve loving other people.  

            Jesus was hinting that eternal life is not only in loving God—the first 4 commandments—but eternal life is also in loving other people…which make up the final 6 commandments.

            Upon hearing this, “the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.” (Mark 10:20, NLT2) I’m good Jesus; I’ve done everything that the law requires.

            Pay particular attention to the first part of verse 21: “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” (Mark 10:21a, NIV)

            The New Living records the words this way: “Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him” (Mark 10:21a, NLT2)

            Because Jesus was others oriented—Me to You-- He could speak the truth in love to this young man. He reminded Him that:

“There is still one thing you haven’t done….Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21b, NLT2)

            Too often we are quick to “take sides” with this passage.

        One group of people will suggest that we need to sell everything we have, and the other group of people will ignore this teaching altogether.

            What we tend to forget when looking at this passage is that Jesus was answering the “what must I do to inherit eternal life” question.

            The topic of possessions only surfaced to the fore-front because the possessions were holding this man back from following after Jesus.

            There is a line in the sand. If we want eternal life, we must be open and honest about what controls us.

This man’s wealth stood in the way of receiving eternal life; he was a slave to his money.

            This wasn’t the first time Jesus was talking about possessions possessing people.

            In Matthew 6, He said: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21, NIV)

Jumping down to verse 24, Jesus continues: “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matthew 6:24, NIV)

There is a direct connection between the relationship that we have with our pocket book and the relationship we have with Jesus. One or the other will almost always win out.

The Rich young man wanted to serve both God and his pocket book, but when Jesus told him that he couldn’t do so, “He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” (Mark 10:22b, NIV)

As Jesus saw this man depart, He took the time to teach His disciples an important lesson:

“How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!" (Mark 10:23b, NLT2)

It should be noted that Jesus does not refer to the one who has riches, but rather to the one who trusts in riches. There is a big difference.

You cannot trust in your riches to get you to heaven. You need to place your trust in Jesus to get you to heaven.

To further illustrate this point, Jesus said: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
(Mark 10:25, NIV)

Again, Jesus points out that it is extremely difficult for someone who trusts in riches to enter the kingdom of heaven.

At this, the disciples begin to scratch their heads and wonder: “…who in the world can be saved?” (Mark 10:26b, NLT2)

If it’s hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom, Jesus, who can enter in?

“Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.” (Mark 10:27, NLT2)

Jesus was implying that a shift has to be made for you and me to enter the kingdom of God—we cannot earn, or buy our way into His kingdom. We must change and become like little children.

Friends, we need to understand that God is not against money and possessions, nor is He against us having money and possessions.

God doesn’t want us trusting in our money and possessions. We are not to believe that wealth will make us secure.

If we are not careful, having possessions can master or rule us. We begin to believe that we own everything; that we are entitled to anything.

But when we’re minded like Christ, we begin to see that the possessions we have are on loan to us and we will manage them, not have them manage us.

In Jesus’ world, people are not defined by their possessions and they are not valued based on their income.

In Jesus’ world you are blessed if you see your need for Him and if you use what He has given you to bless other people.

So the question to ask and answer today is “how do we make a shift from being a consumer— from thinking that I can have everything my little heart desires—to being a steward—to use what God has entrusted to me to bless others?

I want to give you two practical steps that you can implement this week that will help you move from Consumer to Steward.

These are two things that I am doing… if you are reading the SoulShift book, Steve DeNeff will give you a few more steps you can take, but here’s what I’m doing:

Set a cap on your spending.

ILLUSTRATION- My wife and I are trying very hard to limit the usage of our credit cards.

            There was a day, not very long ago, that we would charge everything- from groceries, to gas, to “tools”, anything and everything would go on the card.

            At the end of the month, it was difficult to pay the cards off, because the money that we did have would have been spent on something else.

            Then we decided to do something radical. We decided to use cash.

            We began a weekly budget and use cash for most, if not all, of our purchases.

            There have been times, especially at the end of the week that we’ve wanted to do something, or go somewhere, but the money just wasn’t there, so we ended up staying at home.

            If we are serious about moving from Consumer to Steward, we will have to deal with how we spend our moneyà and what we spend our money on.

            What works for Beth and I might not work for you, and that’s ok, you’ll have to figure out a plan that works for you, but if we’re going to be serious about following Jesus, we’re going to have to cap our spending.

            I believe it was Jesus who said: “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (Luke 12:15, NIV)

            The second practical step is practice sacrificial giving.

            The Bible speaks of this as a tithe.

Those of us who follow Jesus are to give 10% of our income to the church for church purposes.

This is not a suggestion either. This is a biblical command. We are to give 10% of our income, to the church as an act of worship.

If 10% seems like a huge amount to you right now, I want to encourage you to start with 5% and make a commitment to gradually increase your giving to 10% or more.

The bible says in 2 Corinthians 9: “Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.

⁷ You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”

 ⁸ And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.” (2 Cor. 9:6-8, NLT2)

If we want to make a shift from simply consuming things to being a steward of things, we will begin to give a portion of our income to God as an act of worship.

I wonder today how many of us need to experience this shift? How many of us need to move from being a consumer of things to being a steward of things?

Understand that not everyone does! Some of you have been faithful with what God has given to you. You recognize that what you have is on loan to you, and you are treating it as such.

But by chance there is one or two who are seeking that next big thing; we need to ask God to help us move from consumer to steward, because possessions can keep us from missing the kingdom of God.

A good place to begin experiencing this shift is by praying: “Lord, help me. Help me to view “my stuff” as things you have entrusted to me. If someone has a need, and I am able to meet that need because of what You have given me, help me to meet that need.”

If you think God might want you to experience this shift, I would invite you to come to the front and grab this prayer off the alter and pray it for 7 days and be open to what God wants to do deep in your soul, for the soul is the place that God wants to move us from consumer to steward.