Good morning. That was really good. The past several weeks we've been looking
through the book of Deuteronomy and we've been seeing that in the book of
Deuteronomy God is speaking to his people through Moses and God's word is
being used to shape a people for, God's using it to shape a people for himself
and he's using it to create a people who will love him and love others.
And we've talked about the fact that when God speaks, it changes his people.
And when God speaks, it is big and it is important. And so I want us, before we look
at God's word today, to just take a second, each of us individually, to pray and ask God to speak
to us today, that we would hear his voice as we look at his word and that he would shape us
into the people that he wants us to be during this time.
Father, we pray for this time together today. We pray that you would work in our hearts,
that you would work in our lives, that you would shape us into the people that you want
us to be. That as we are in this room today, that we would hear your voice and that we would
be transformed because of it. And in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen. So I have something I need to confess to you. I have a problem with money. You know,
we live in this wealthiest city on earth. We have more Rolls Royces per capita than anywhere
on earth. And you know what? That doesn't really bother me that much. I don't usually fall asleep
at night dreaming about owning a Rolls Royce. I recognize that's probably not a reality I'm ever
going to have. So it doesn't really bother me. But here's the thing that does bother me when it
comes to money. I spend a whole bunch of time hanging out with people who have a little bit
more money than me. Not billions of dollars more than me, but a little bit more. And because of this,
these people are able to take fancier vacations than me, stay at nicer hotels while they're away.
They're able to have nicer furniture and decorations in their apartment than I have.
And when we go out for meals, they can eat at a little bit nicer restaurants.
You know, I can still take vacations. I still have furniture and decorations in my apartment. I can
still eat out. But I spend a lot of time with people who can do this a little bit better than I can.
And when I look at them and I compare myself to them, it's easy for me to honestly believe in my
heart that I am poor. And that's my problem with money. I spend loads of time comparing myself to
people who have a little bit more than me, and it makes me feel like I am poor. However, the objective
facts tell me that that is far from true.
795 million people on the planet right now do not get enough nourishment to live a healthy, active lifestyle.
2.5 billion people on the planet don't have access to adequate sanitation.
Which means that literally, if you live on the streets in Hong Kong, like on the streets homeless,
the fact that you have access to public bathrooms, public showers, and public water fountains
means that you're better off than one in three people on Earth when it comes to sanitation.
We live in an incredibly blessed, incredibly prosperous society.
And by every objective standard, everyone in this room, including me, is incredibly wealthy.
I did a little research this week. There's a website called Global Rich List, and it tells you,
you type in how much you make, and it will tell you how wealthy you are compared to the average
person on the planet.
And I learned something very interesting.
Everyone here is incredibly wealthy.
If you didn't know this, Hong Kong sort of has two pay scales.
They have the pay scale for domestic helpers and the pay scale for everyone else.
The pay scale for domestic helpers is way lower.
But if you're here today and making minimum wage as a domestic helper in Hong Kong,
according to this website, Global Rich List, you're still in the top 20% of richest people
on Earth by income.
If you're making $12,000 Hong Kong a month, which from what I understand is fairly normal
for a fresh graduate from university, you're in the top 2.5% of richest people on Earth
by income, according to this website.
And to get to the top 1%, do you know how much you need to earn?
Anyone got a guess?
No guesses?
What?
$50,000?
The correct answer, according to this website, to make it to the top 1% of all earners on Earth,
you need to make $16,500 Hong Kong a month.
We are an incredibly wealthy and blessed society and people.
Even the poorest person in this room, by an objective standard compared to the rest of the world,
is incredibly rich.
I am incredibly rich.
And I have this problem, like I said, where I feel like I am not.
And I know that for me, I spend far more time comparing myself with a handful of people who have
a little bit more than me than I do giving thanks for the fact that I have more than I even need.
If you haven't figured it out today, or figured it out yet, we're talking about money today.
And we're looking at, again, like I said, the book of Deuteronomy and Moses' instruction to the Israelites about money.
And what we're going to see is that money is a good gift from God,
but it can become a curse if we let it get in the way of us trusting God.
We're going to have three things we're going to look at.
First, the curse that was a blessing.
Second, the blessing that could be a curse.
And third, our solution, remember the Savior who sets us free.
So we have the curse that was a blessing, the blessing that could be a curse,
and remember the Savior who sets us free.
First off, the curse that was a blessing.
As the Israelites are receiving the book of Deuteronomy,
they're coming out of 40 years wandering in the wilderness, in the desert.
This time in the wilderness was given to them as a punishment.
Originally, God set them free from slavery in Egypt,
and basically was going to take them straight to the Promised Land
with a quick detour to Mount Sinai to give them the law.
But the Israelites, when they saw the people of the land,
were terrified and said,
we can't go in there, we can't fight them, we can't do this.
We're not going to go.
And God said, well, the whole point is that you can't do it.
You're not supposed to do it.
I'm supposed to do it.
You're supposed to go anyways.
And they said, no, we're not going to do it.
We're out.
And God said, okay, you get 40 years in the wilderness as a punishment
for your disobedience and lack of faith.
And during this time, God, Moses uses the word humbled the Israelites.
If you look at verses 2 and 3 of today's passage,
he says,
So this humbling process involved everyone over the age of 20 dying
before they went into the Promised Land.
But it also involved God letting the Israelites hunger.
Not just like, oh, I missed a meal,
but like they were crying out like,
God, did you bring us here so that you could kill us
because we are so hungry we think we're going to die.
And this time was tough for the Israelites,
but it was good for them.
Why was it good?
Because God brought them to a place where they learned to depend on him
because they saw that there was nothing they could do to provide for themselves.
It says that God fed them with this manna that fell down from the sky every day.
In verse 4, he talks about how their clothing did not wear out,
their feet did not swell.
God provided miraculously for his people during this time
in ways that they could never have provided for themselves.
They're sort of like babies.
You know, you have a newborn baby.
A lot of my friends are reaching the point where they're starting to have babies.
And as a baby, you're completely reliant on your parents for everything.
And you know, if you have a little like one-year-old or two-year-old baby
and it walks up to their parents and says,
wow, mom and dad, look how great a life I've provided for myself.
As a parent, you're either going to laugh or cry.
Laugh because it's so ridiculous,
this idea that my baby would think that it can provide for itself.
Or cry because my baby completely does not understand or appreciate everything that I do
to provide a life for him or her.
In the same way, Israel was in a place where there was nothing they could do to say,
look how great of a life we have provided for ourselves.
Because they were utterly, completely dependent on God and they knew it.
The day-to-day life that they lived,
they could see their utter reliance on God all the time.
Despite what some people in our culture would want us to believe,
there are things in life more important than us having lots of money.
And one of the things the Bible says is more important than having money
is having this reliance and trust on God.
And God used this time in the wilderness to teach the Israelites to rely on him.
You know, a couple thousand or maybe 1400 or so years after this,
Jesus came.
He spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness.
And at the end of those 40 days, Satan tempted him.
He said, turn these stones into bread.
I know you're hungry.
You can do it.
You have this power.
And Jesus actually did what the Israelites should have done
during their time in the wilderness.
He learned to rely on God.
And he actually used this passage as his response to Satan.
He said, man shall not live by bread alone,
but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
He refused to use his power to provide for himself.
He trusted in God.
He fought the temptation to just make it happen for himself.
And you know what happens at the end of that story with Jesus in the wilderness?
It says the angels came and ministered to him.
God provided for him because he was obedient to God.
And in the same way, God's trying to teach the Israelites through the time in the wilderness
that he provides for them.
God is our provider.
And so even though this time in the wilderness was given to the Israelites as a curse,
as a punishment for their disobedience and lack of faith,
it turned into a blessing because God used it to show them that he provides,
that he is the good father that they need.
But the story doesn't end with them in the wilderness.
No, the story moves on because God's plan is not for his people to stay in the wilderness forever.
He has something more for them,
which brings us to the blessing that could be a curse.
See, God has this amazing blessing prepared for his people.
If you look in the passage starting in verse 7, it says,
The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land,
a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs flowing out in the valleys and the hills.
And he goes on for four verses just describing the goodness of this land.
And if you look at it, the words that he uses to describe it, he says it's a good land.
God wants you to live in the good land.
It's a land of brooks of water, which is a good contrast to the desert they've been living in for the past 40 years.
It's a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, olive trees and honey.
There is so much food here.
You're not going to have to rely on bread to fall out of the sky every day
because the land grows its own food.
And not only that, but you're going to eat without scarcity.
You're going to be able to eat not just enough to survive,
but you're going to be able to eat until you're full in this land.
Isn't that going to be amazing?
He says you're going to be able to dig metals out of the hills so that you can work with it.
You're going to eat and be full.
You're going to bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.
Moses says this land is going to be good.
God is going to provide it for you.
And there's something very important that we should learn from this,
and that is that money and material blessings are not bad.
They're good gifts from God for his people.
God, in this passage, wants his people to experience the abundance that he is giving them in this new land.
He's actually brought them through this difficult process so that he can bless them in this new land.
As a good father, he delights in giving good gifts to his children.
And like we said already, if you're here today, by any objective worldly standard, we are wealthy people.
Like I said, I don't feel like this is true for me a lot of the time, but it is true.
We are a wealthy people.
God has blessed us.
He's given us food to eat, clothes to wear, a roof over our heads, adequate sanitation.
Yeah, some of us might be more wealthy than others, but we are all wealthy people.
And our wealth is a gift from God.
And we don't need to feel guilty about the fact that we're wealthy,
unless maybe if we've earned that wealth through illegal or immoral means.
But God delights in blessing his people.
Having stuff, having money is not a bad thing in and of itself.
However, having wealth and abundance brings danger.
And that's what Moses is warning the people of in this passage.
He finishes describing the amazing good land that God's going to give to his people.
And then the first words in verse 11 are, take care.
God is giving you this wonderful, abundant, great new land.
Be careful.
Because this new land is going to bring temptations with it to rely on yourself
that you have never had in the wilderness.
You know, if the time in the wilderness was the time of infancy for the Israelites,
the time in the promised land maybe could be compared to a time of adolescence.
In my home, my parents provided for us.
They would make us do chores because we're part of the family.
And as part of the family, we had to contribute to the family.
And when I got to be a teenager, I felt like, you know, I'm doing chores.
I'm contributing to my family's prosperity.
I deserve to be compensated for what I'm doing for my family.
And so I told my parents, you know, my friends all get allowances for the chores that they do.
I'm contributing to our family.
I should get an allowance for the chores that I do.
My parents explained to me that I really didn't want that to be the case
because if they did that, they would start charging me rent
and charge me for the food that they fed me.
And I said, no, no, no, no.
You don't understand.
I contribute to this family.
I deserve to get paid for the work that I do.
And that led to a big argument.
That's another story for another time that I lost very badly.
But it's that attitude that I had is one that Moses said the Israelites could very easily fall into.
Where even though we're in this place of utter dependence on someone else,
we believe this lie that we are the ones providing for ourselves
and that we are the ones who are worthy of receiving everything that we have.
And that's why, just like me, as an ignorant teenager,
Israel, in this land of prosperity and blessing,
was going to face a temptation to become self-reliant.
This land, this blessing that God was giving them,
was a good gift.
But it brought with us danger.
And for God's people, for us,
a lot of times, the times when we are successful,
are actually the most dangerous times for us.
Because in the times when everything is going crazy,
we recognize our utter dependence on God.
God, I was reminded of that this morning.
We had a handful of kids' teachers downstairs call in sick very last minute.
We were scrambling to try and find teachers.
And I just reached this point where I was like,
there's nothing I can do on my own to fix this situation.
God, please help.
And he did.
He provided all the teachers that we needed for this morning.
And it was this time of everything's going crazy.
I need to rely on God.
And God came through.
But when everything is going right,
I have a tendency to believe that I can do it on my own power,
by my own strength.
When things are going well,
I believe that I am responsible for them going well.
When my life feels like it's in order,
I believe that it's in order because I have done the right things.
I have made the right decisions to get me to where I am today.
And the reality is,
I am utterly dependent on God for everything.
Yeah, I worked hard in school to get through and get a job.
But the reality is,
I had no control over whether I would be born into a family
where I would even have access to school as a little kid.
I had no control over whether I'd be born with disabilities
that would keep me from being able to do a job.
I had no control over whether I'd be born into one of those families
where 795 million people in the world lack adequate nutrition.
All of these things were things that were completely outside my control
that God provided for me.
Each of us is completely dependent on God for everything in our lives.
I mean, you can think of this,
even we can take an extreme example of someone like LeBron James.
Right?
He worked hard.
He has won NBA championships.
He, if you don't know the story,
he grew up in the Cleveland area.
He got drafted by his hometown team,
went away, played for another team,
won a couple championships,
and then came back to play for Cleveland
and said,
my goal is to win a championship for my city.
And in his second year,
back with the Cavaliers in Cleveland,
they won the championship.
And if you listen to his interview
after winning the championship,
do you know what word you hear over and over and over again?
I.
I worked hard.
I came back.
We did this.
Lots of emphasis on him.
And you know what?
From an earthly perspective,
yes, he did work hard.
But think about the numerous things
that had to work together in his life
that were completely dependent on God
for him to be able to have that opportunity
in the first place.
If he was born with a deformed leg
or a deformed arm,
he would not have been an NBA championship.
If he was born five foot six,
none of us would have ever heard his name before.
And even the things that seem to be negatives
that are these barriers and obstacles
that he had to overcome
probably are things that in the end
helped to shape him into who he is today.
He had a rough childhood.
He probably felt this need to fight and overcome
and prove himself by becoming great at basketball
that he wouldn't have had
if he had this comfortable childhood.
All of these factors in his life
are things outside of his control
that are completely dependent on God.
And each of us here today,
however successful we are,
are completely dependent on God for everything.
For the fact that our heart is still pumping
from one moment to the next,
we are dependent on God.
For the fact that our company is staying afloat,
we are dependent on God.
For the fact that our brains are still working
and we can still do our job from a mental capacity,
we are dependent on God.
And we have little to no control
over so many of these things.
And we feel like we do.
But at the end of the day,
all of us are dependent on God
for all of these things.
And the times when we are successful
are times of great temptation
because when everything is working together properly,
it's easy to believe
that it's working together properly because of us
and to stop trusting in God.
And that's why this blessing,
this good blessing that God was giving to his people
had a great danger attached to it.
Moses is saying,
God wants to bless you as you go into this land,
but take care.
Be careful.
Because the blessing can very easily become a curse
if we let ourselves believe
if we let ourselves believe that we are the ones
who gave this blessing to ourselves
and lose sight of the fact
that we are utterly dependent on God for everything.
So what's the solution?
How do we take care?
How do we avoid falling into this trap
of believing that we are self-sufficient
and that we can do it on our own?
The solution is,
remember the Savior who sets us free.
Remember the Savior who sets us free.
Moses tells the Israelites right here,
the simple solution is remember.
Remember.
We've mentioned before,
the words remember and do not forget
occur over and over and over again
in the book of Deuteronomy.
The Israelites are supposed to remember
what God has done in the past
so that they will be shaped by that
moving into the future.
And the combination of words remember
and do not forget
actually occur more times in this chapter,
chapter eight,
than in any other chapter in the book of Deuteronomy.
Moses very clearly wants the Israelites
to remember, remember,
do not forget what God has done for you.
When I hear this word remember,
I think of the picture
that immediately comes to mind
is like second grade spelling tests.
You sit there and you spell through the word
in your mind over and over and over
until it's stuck there
so you can remember it
so that when you get into class
and the teacher says,
you need to spell math,
you can write down M-A-T-H
because in America we don't put an S on the end
because we do it properly.
And you remember how to spell these words,
but it's just a simple fact
that's in your mind
that doesn't impact the way that you live at all.
That's not the kind of remembering
that Moses is talking about here.
He's talking about
a more relational kind of remembering.
It's like if you have an old friend.
You've been through a lot together.
You have a history together.
Now you live in different cities,
but your friend is coming to your city
for a couple days.
And you have the opportunity
to hang out with this friend
and catch up with them
and you totally blow them off.
Maybe in your mind
you still remember your friendship.
You can recount the details
of what's happened between the two of you.
But in a very real sense,
you've forgotten that relationship
because you've forgotten
the importance that it had in your life
and the way that it shaped you.
This is a type of remembering and forgetting
that actually carries some weight with it
because it shapes who we are
and who we become.
Moses is saying,
don't blow off God.
Don't ignore the history
that you have together.
remember him
like you would remember
an old friend
when they come to visit you in town.
It's a relational remembering.
And he says that this is important
for your life,
for your spiritual health.
So this raises the important question,
what is it that makes us forget?
If remembering is so important
and we're supposed to not forget,
what is it that causes us to forget
in the first place?
Well, obviously,
we're talking about money today.
But money isn't really the answer,
I don't think.
No one wants money
simply for the sake of having money.
We want money for the things
that it can give us.
Money makes us feel secure.
Money makes us feel powerful.
Money makes us feel self-sufficient.
We want these things
and we grasp after money
because we think that money
can give us these other things
that we want.
And again,
money in and of itself
is not a bad thing.
The wealth that all of us have
is a gift from God.
The prosperity that the Israelites
were going to have in the new land
was a gift from God.
The problem is
that wealth brings a temptation
to believe that we are self-sufficient
and don't need God.
And when we give in
to this temptation,
we forget God,
we forget what he has done for us,
and we rely on ourselves instead
because we believe
that we're the ones
who have done this all for ourselves.
So how do we
keep ourselves from forgetting,
keep ourselves from relying on ourselves?
Moses gives the simple solution,
remember.
Which you're like,
well, duh.
Obviously,
the solution to not forgetting
is remembering.
What are we supposed to remember?
We're supposed to remember
God's salvation.
Moses, he's here.
He's describing the new land
that they're going into.
He says,
take care to not forget the Lord.
And then,
in the middle of verse 14,
he jumps in and narrates
everything that God has done
to rescue them from slavery
and bring them into this good land.
He says,
in the middle of verse 14,
he brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of slavery.
He led you through
the great and terrifying wilderness
with its fiery serpents
and scorpions
and thirsty ground
where there was no water
and brought you water
out of the flinty rock.
He fed you in the wilderness
with manna
that your fathers did not know
that he might humble you
and test you
to do you good in the end.
He goes through
and he narrates for them
everything that God
has done for them
to rescue them,
to shape them
into a people for himself.
That is what
they are supposed to remember.
If you don't know this,
the Exodus story from Egypt
is the great salvation story
of the Old Testament.
It's a time when God
took his people who were slaves
and rescued them
and made them into
a people for himself.
And Moses points the people
back to this
and says,
if you remember
what God has done for you
in the past,
it will help you
fight the temptation
to rely on yourself
in the future.
And the same is true
for us today.
Except
we have
an even greater
salvation story
that we can look back upon.
another story
of a time
when God
took his people
who were slaves
and rescued them
to shape them
into a people
for himself.
Only with us,
it wasn't slavery,
physical slavery
in Egypt.
The Bible tells us
that each of us,
as God's creation,
owed allegiance
and obedience
to God
and each of us
rebelled.
Each of us
committed treason
on a cosmic level
and as a punishment
for that,
we became slaves
to our sin,
our rebellion.
We deserved death.
And that to rescue us
from our slavery,
God sent his son,
Jesus,
God in human flesh,
to come to the earth,
to set us free
from our slavery
at great cost to himself,
at the cost
of his own life.
He bore the consequences
that we owed
so that God
could shape us
into a people
for himself.
We remember
the Savior,
remember
this great salvation.
I love,
in 2 Corinthians
chapter 8,
verse 9,
the Apostle Paul
sort of ties together
what Jesus has done
in rescuing us
from our sin
and the discussion
of money
into one.
and he says,
for you know
the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ
that though he was rich,
yet for your sake
he became poor
so that you
by his poverty
might become rich.
You know,
when it comes
to material possessions,
I so often feel
this need to grab on
to everything
that I can get
and just hold on to it
as tightly as I can.
And I hold on to it
with a grasped fist
so that no one
can get it from me.
And what Paul says
is that Jesus
was rich.
Jesus had everything.
And Jesus came
and instead of grasping it
and holding on to it,
he held his hand out
and said,
here,
it's yours.
Take it.
He became poor
so that we might become rich.
He held his wealth
with an open hand
so that we could prosper
through his generosity.
And the Bible tells us
that the proper response
to that,
to that love
that he has shown us,
is that now
instead of us
grasping on
to all of the wealth
that we can get,
we grasp on
to Jesus
as tightly as we can.
And the thing
about grasping on
to Jesus
as tightly as you can
is that you can't
grasp on to Jesus
as tightly as possible
and grasp on to money
as tightly as possible
at the same time.
If you're grasping
on to Jesus
as tightly as possible,
you're going to hold
your money
with an open hand.
But we can do this
because he showed us
there's something
more important
than having all the money.
That relationship
with him
is far more valuable
than what's
in our bank account.
he sets us free
to be generous
with what we have.
He sets us free
to love the people
around us
by letting go
of his wealth
so that we can
become wealthy,
not so that we can
stockpile that wealth,
but so that we can
be generous
with our wealth
in the same way
that he was generous
with his.
So what does this look like
in real life?
Well, first,
if you're here today
and you are not
a Christian,
the first step
is recognizing
the Savior
and what he has done
for you.
Recognizing that
although we
are rebels
against God,
that God
sent his son
to rescue us
to pay the price
for our rebellion
against him,
that he became poor
so that we might
become rich.
And the way
to receive that gift
is through trusting
in him
and placing
our faith in him
to rescue us.
If you're here today
and you are
a Christian,
it's about
holding our money
with an open hand
because we're
holding on to Christ
as tightly
as we can.
Remember,
everyone in this room
is wealthy.
I'm not talking
to people above
a certain income level.
All of us
have earthly wealth.
And I think so often,
like Chris said,
we in the church
talk about how
we should be generous
and give,
especially to the church,
and then don't talk
about what else
we should do
with the rest
of our money.
And it's so easy
to just say,
this is my stuff,
you don't worry about it
because it's mine
to worry about.
But what this passage
teaches us
is that everything
we have
is a gift from God.
Like Chris said earlier,
we are stewards,
he is the true owner.
And so yes,
generosity,
giving to the church
is important
because it allows us
to do stuff
to reach out
to the people around us
and to do ministry.
But,
what about the rest of it
that doesn't go
in the offering plate?
How do we have
an attitude this week
that says,
everything I have
in my bank account
and in my house
is a gift from God
to be used for him?
You know,
the Bible does say
providing for our families
is something God
wants us to do.
Using your money
to provide for your family
is a good thing.
Using your money
to make your spouse
feel valued
is a good thing.
But then what else?
What if we used
our money
to invite another family
over for dinner
and cook them a meal
so we could get
to know them
and find out
how we can do
a better job
loving the people
around us?
Whether it's people
from church
or people from
our apartment building
or from our work.
Just using our resources
to help build relationships
so that we can know
how we can love
the people around us.
Even for those of us
who don't have
lots of disposable income,
cooking a meal
for two extra people
is not that expensive.
And what if we said,
we're going to use
the resources
that God has given us
to invest
in building relationships
this week
so that we can be light
and salt
for God
and his kingdom?
What if we just
went into conversations
with eyes and ears
looking for the needs
around us
and a heart that says,
I want to use
what God has blessed me with
to be part of helping people
with the needs
that they have.
I think even that
small attitude change
would be a huge step
towards recognizing
that what we have
is a gift from God
not for ourselves.
and at the end of the day,
whether or not
we use our resources
to love others
is a reflection
of whether we truly believe
these resources
are from God
or whether we believe
they're from ourselves.
If we believe
that they're from God,
we can be generous
with them
because just as he has
provided for us
in the past,
he will continue
to provide in the future.
If we believe
that our resources
are completely from us
and our self-sufficient
hard work,
we're going to
stockpile them
because we never know
when our luck's
going to run out
and when we're going
to need them
in the future.
So the curse
can be a blessing.
Poverty can be a blessing
if it draws us to God.
The blessing
can be a curse.
Prosperity and riches,
although a good gift
from God,
can be dangerous
if they draw us
away from him.
At the end of the day,
the question isn't
about how much money
we have in our bank account
but about who
we are relying on.
Are we relying
on ourselves
to provide for ourselves
and take care
of ourselves?
Or are we relying
on the Savior
who gave up
his riches
and became poor
so that we might
become rich
and calls us
to do the same
for the others
around us?
We're going to close
in prayer in just a minute,
but before we do that,
I want us to just take
one minute to reflect
and think,
this coming week,
what's one
tangible way
that you can use
the resources
that you have
to demonstrate
a reliance on God
rather than on yourself?
In this coming week,
what's one tangible way
that you can use
the resources you have
to demonstrate
a reliance on God
rather than reliance
on yourself?
God, I confess
that so often
when it comes to money,
I feel the need
to hoard and stockpile
personally
because I don't rely
on you.
I confess
that I feel poor
even though you have
blessed me with so much
and that I don't
give you the thanks
that you deserve
for the blessings
that you have given me.
God, I pray
that we as a people
would be
people who remember you,
people who remember
the things that you
have done for us
and remember the importance
of our relationship
with you,
that as we remember
that it would make us
generous,
that as we remember
that it would help
shape us into a people
who love you
and love others,
that you would help us
to be a community
of people
who shows the world
around you
through our actions
the amazing love
that you have for us
and that lives
would be transformed
because of our
generosity.
I pray that you would
protect us
from relying on ourselves
and help us
to have a constant
reliance on you
to provide for us
and care for us.
We thank you
that you're good.
We thank you
that you love us.
In Jesus' name,
amen.