NOV 5 2017 | Luke 7:40-50

Sea Change Church · "Luke 7:40-50" · Adam Stadtmiller · November 5, 2017
Luke 7:40-50
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

All right, we're going to read Luke 7, 40 through 50. And Jesus answered him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he replied, say it, teacher. A moneylender had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii, the other 50. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one who he forgave more.

And Jesus said to him, you've judged correctly. Turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet. But she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss. But she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil.

But she anointed my feet with perfume. For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven. For she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little. Then he said to her, your sins have been forgiven. Those who were reclining at the table with him began to say to themselves, who is this man that even forgives sins?

And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. That was awesome, bro. That was so awesome. I felt like I was in the story. My goodness. We got some good readers. Carol, we'll get you up here soon, too. I like how you do it. I always want a flannel gram with Carol, though. You know, remember the flannel boards when you were a kid? Talk about money for a few weeks.

And something I actually enjoy talking about because it's, yeah, it really is, has really changed my life in regard to allowing my faith to be seen in the way I use any resource that I have in my life. I don't know about you, but I'm really good at figuring out and having optimism to financially figure out the things that I want in my life.

I don't know about you, but I have this, like, real estate fantasy world that I live in. I can't go anywhere. This is one of the fun things I do. I can't go anywhere without wanting to own a piece of the land, right? So you go on vacation. I have to own something. I have looked at buying islands. I'm not saying I can buy an island, but I'm looking at the cheapest islands you can get.

I've looked at, maybe you've seen me post it. I've looked at 100-acre parcels up in San Luis Obispo on old ranches that was only $10 million that I tried to get an investment group that we could get together. I thought about, I'm figuring it out. I was just in Montana, and I told you about the ranch that I want. When we visit my brother in England, I've got to have a flat in London.

And when we go to Cornwall, I have to have a little sheep farm down there as well. And I will spend hours figuring out. My wife laughs because she does it with me. I will spend hours figuring it out. And I will think about it. And it is going to happen. And if I only sell this and leverage our entire family at high interest rates, God loves me. It's a faith step.

It's a faith step. I can make it happen. I can always make it happen and figure it out. Now, I haven't pulled the trigger on anything yet. That might be the wisdom coming in. Haven't bought the island or the airplane. That one island I wanted, you need an airplane to get there. That was a problem. So I don't know if we get the runway built. But I can figure that out too.

I was driving through Montana thinking about the beautiful place I wanted and the ranch and how I was going to make it happen financially. And I felt like the Holy Spirit just spoke to me. You know, God, he's very kind to me. But sometimes he's a little abrupt, you know. And I just felt him say, have you, do you spend as much time thinking and planning out your generosity goals or your giving goals financially?

And are you as excited about figuring those out as you are about the fantasy house you want to get? I rarely think to myself, I could sell our home in Carlsbad, which we bought years ago. I could sell that and I could take half that money and open up an orphanage. Yeah, and how can I make that financing work? Now, if I give half of it away and then I go and I work seven jobs, I rarely think that.

But when it comes to my little plot of land somewhere in the world, anywhere beautiful in the world, I can always figure it out. Why is that? Why is it when it comes to the things that I want? I'm just so creative. But when it comes to generosity, oftentimes, I'm just like, you know, what's kind of, where do I kind of need to be at? And then, you know, I'll give God what he wants.

And then I'll kind of just, you know, hopefully I can, you know, he doesn't take too much and I can have the rest for me. I think about it very differently when I think about the things that I want in my life. In this story, story that is found in all four of the Gospels. Now, there's only 11 stories that are found in all four of the Gospels.

We meet this woman. There's a little, you know, textual criticism you can do on who it is. And some have said Mary Magdalene. Others have said a prostitute. But in this story, at the home of Lazarus, who was a leper, a former leper, this woman comes in. And we know that she's a very sinful woman. I don't know if you heard during the break the song that, you know, she works hard for the money.

We played that song. It's a great song about a woman working two jobs to support her family. Nothing about that song in particular that's nefarious. But we played that for a reason because you have this woman here who somehow has this incredible gift to give Jesus. She's giving him her entire self. But not sexually. She's giving herself mind, spirit, and body.

And not only that, she's giving away, she's pouring this perfume, perfume and ointments. She said, it wasn't like you could go to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf or down to World Market and just go get some saffron back in the day. It wasn't like that. They would have to bring it from far away and things were very expensive. And so, according to some of the textual criticism here, this ointment that she pours on Jesus is worth a whole year's salary.

Now, take the median salary here in La Jolla. Let's go to Santee. That's still pretty good. To go, you know, somewhere in the world or wherever it is and take that one year of salary and say that that is what this is worth. And she breaks a year. Remember your whole salary. Take your entire income for the year and put it in liquid form and break it on the feet of Jesus.

That's what she does. It's radical. She is living by a completely different economy. That's interesting. Most of us have two types of economy that we think by. There are people that think there is not enough to go around. So, there's thinking no matter what, there won't be enough. It is a, it's a, sometimes can be a spirit of lack. Sometimes it's just wisdom.

It's just, you know, hey, I want to save up for a rainy day. I kind of feel, I learned in the last time we had the 2004 march up to the high economy, that what you should do when economy is doing really well is save up for when it's not going to be doing well. That's what Joseph did. As opposed to back then, leverage everything you can because we're high and it will always stay this way.

So, we have some people that have this idea that there will never be enough. And then there's, there's others who feel like, well, there's more where that came from. And rarely do we have people that have a completely, let me say, I don't know if the banal is the right word, but where money or finance has no control over them. It doesn't make them happy.

It has no control over their emotions to make them sad. Very rare where you will find a person who just sees money as a resource but has no emotional tie to it. And so the question to you as a congregation is, and personally, as we look at our own finances and how we buy finances, or excuse me, how we use our finances, is what is your relationship with money?

Does it give you a sense of security? What I'm trying to do, and what I feel like the Lord has challenged me to do, is to look at money in the same way I look at sand on the beach. To have the same emotional attachment to it. I don't know about you, but when a check comes in, I get a dopamine spike. I don't know, right? Check comes in, you know, mailman comes.

I always say it to the mailman, not that that many checks come in, but every time the mailman comes, I always say to him, did you bring me a check? I want a check. I don't want bills. I want checks. That's your job. And how much I like you is based upon how many, no, I don't say that to him. It gives me this dopamine spike. And I was wondering, what would it be like where money has absolutely no control over my emotions?

What would that kind of life look like? I understand the use of it. I understand what it can be used for. But it doesn't have any ability to affect who I am as a person or my emotional state. I think that's a place that I want to get to. And we see this woman living on a completely different economy. Not an economy of lack. Not an economy of worry.

Just a lavishness. She was so lavish in her generosity. Her generosity of tears. Her generosity of love, of affection. Matter of fact, so much that she never says a word. Jesus doesn't say to her, do you want to follow me? That we know of. Jesus doesn't say to her, hey, I've got a four spiritual law book. And I want to pull it out right now to make sure that we walk through this.

And once we get through it, you're going to be saved. And then we're going to pray a prayer. I'm not saying that we shouldn't do that or don't do that. I'm just saying there was no transaction that Jesus makes with her. She comes, asks for nothing, and lavishly pours out everything she has to Jesus. She's lavish in the way that she lives her life.

Perhaps too lavish in the way that she had lived her life. But she had met a moment of crisis where she was all in with Jesus. By her actions, without saying a word, she spoke with her tears. She spoke with her actions. Jesus says to her, your sins are forgiven. Interesting that he ties forgiveness of sins to her emotional, spiritual, mental, physical reaction to him as the savior of the world.

And interesting that we see that a lot of this is forgiveness is tied to money. Now, why does Jesus talk about money so much? It's interesting. He talks as much about money as anything else in the scripture. Jesus talks about money a fair amount. Here's one thing that's interesting. Money is a product of the fall of mankind. Money did not exist before mankind fell.

Money is a product of sin. I'm not saying money is sinful. I'm not saying that. Money is not the root of all evil. It is the root of many types of evil. We'll see that in a moment. But money is a result of the fall of mankind. We'll look at that here in a second. I don't think it's surprising, and I'm getting ahead of myself in the sermon, that Jesus was actually sold for what?

Money. He had a very interesting view of money. When it was time to pay his taxes, he's like, go down, Peter, go down, find a fish. There's two coins in his mouth. Pay yours and mine. I mean, that's how Jesus deals with money. We're going to look at that, but we're going to look at this woman, and this is going to be the first person that we wish we could do that, right?

We're going to see the first person in this three-part series of money, and that basically, and the whole point of today, is to allow you to become a lot more, I don't even know if I have the right word, but caring about money and the way that it affects you. To not be a person that is controlled in any way by your finances. And I want to say, just as congregations are asked to give, pastors and leaders need to be very careful in how we see money, in how we see it for our sustenance.

Do we need to have certain donors in the church in order for our survival and things like that? We need to be very careful, and it's a delicate balance. Jesus has the same viewpoint of money that he sees that this woman has. Some version of this story you'll see in your notes is in all four of the Gospels. Only 11 events are recorded in all four of the Gospels.

And Jesus promises this woman, because it's such an important story, one of 11. He says to her, in Matthew 26, verse 13, truly I say to you, wherever the Gospel is proclaimed, he ties what she did and her lavish generosity. Not just in finance. Can we please just not make it about finance? Her being was given to him. She was wiping his feet, kissing his feet, washing her feet with her tears.

Lazarus, who was a leper, obviously, was healed at some point. I'm assuming maybe Jesus. There wasn't a lot of medication for lepers in the day. I would imagine that Jesus is in this house because he healed this leper. I'm speaking out of the silence of the text. But Jesus is hanging out with a pretty salacious crowd. He was probably healed, Lazarus, but yet when Jesus comes in, he doesn't know the protocol to care.

And Jesus sees his physical healing as being less than the emotional, spiritual healing of forgiveness. So he says, to whom much has been forgiven, you will be more loving. And to whom has less. And so he says that both of you have a need here, is what he's saying. The woman has a need. Lazarus has a need. But he points her out and he says, because of this, she will be remembered for all time, wherever the entirety of the Gospel is preached.

He didn't say, whenever anybody tells a little story about me, they're going to remember this woman. Or when there's some conversation in a pub. Once again, I'm in England. When there's a pub conversation going on about me, this woman. No, he says, when the Gospel, the Gospel has the power of eternal life, of resurrection. When the Gospel is preached, this act that she did, and we should put it in our focus.

We should put it in the crosshairs and look at it, because something powerful is happening here, where only 11 stories are shown. And in this, Jesus says, when the Gospel and the power of the Gospel that can bring salvation, according to Romans, is spoken. Not just trite stories about me. She will be remembered. And I say, if you're going to look at people in the Scripture, we might have our favorites.

You might have Moses, Daniel. I heard about Joseph today. And Dr. Levy was teaching for Elliot this morning. Powerful characters. But every time the Gospel is preached, Moses is not spoken of. And every time the Gospel is preached, that Daniel, that, you know, Daniel or these others, but this woman, there was something about her. She lived a lavish life.

Licentious and lavish. And Christ was saying, and she was saying with her actions, I no longer want to be licentious. But I do want to be lavish. How lavish are you? How free are you? I can't even give a parking spot at La Jolla Village Square without, ah, what are you doing? The other day, I had my, I mean, somebody was coming down, I put my blinker on, I about broke the blinker thing, you know.

You know, how lavish are we? Just yes, yes, yes. And each time is like a tear that washes Jesus' feet. The sinful woman in this story is living on a different economy. Money is the product of the fall of mankind and symbolizes inequality. What is money, why is money needed? Because the land no longer freely produces. You know, before the fall, as you'll see here in Genesis, go down your notes to Genesis 1-2.

What did the land do? The land produced vegetation. There was no need to earn. All you had to do was tend. You didn't have to earn. You tend, you know, there's a difference between earning and tending. You see, because of the fall of mankind, the earth wouldn't give up the fruits anymore. And so man had to work by what? The sweat of his brow. Money is a symbol of inequality.

You don't have this. You must give it. It's a symbol of your debt. Even if you have lots of money, you are in debt for that yacht. And so if you want to have that yacht, you're going to have to pay that. And there's going to be a transaction in order for you to survive, perhaps, with food. If you read Les Mis, that's what my daughter's reading right now.

You know, there's that story of transactions that have to take place because they don't have enough. See, in God's economy, everything's free. You see that? The land produces for itself. You don't need to work. There is no need for money. Money is a symbol of the fall. And we have to ask ourselves, how tied do we want to be to money? The scripture says that when sin happened, that there was a debt.

And it uses financial terms. The debt needed to be paid. Don't be surprised that Jesus was sold for money. Imagine, I mean, think about Jesus' reaction to money. That's a good word. What's his reaction to money? He was sold for money. How much are you going to love money if you're being sold for money? And then he understood that he had a father that freely give.

It has no need in heaven. There will be no bartering system. Because God is of ultimate value. And when God is of ultimate value and freely I give, he is all about free. Do you see that? The gospel is about freedom. I have set you free that you might be free. That's why the Bible doesn't want debt. And it speaks against debt. Because of sin, sin created a debt.

And the financial system followed that debt and represents that debt. And when mankind finds itself with God in eternity again through the shed blood of Christ, there will be no more debt and God will give freely and there will be no more use of money. How tied do you want to be to money? When you know that it is a product of the fall and it symbolizes that.

Here we see in the scripture, if you go to Colossians 2.14, the scripture uses financial language to define our sinful condition. Money is tied to sin. I'm not saying money is sinful. So let's not do that. But in regard to the metaphor, when God speaks about the sinful condition, money is a really easy go-to for him. And so he says this in Colossians.

Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, there was a legal indebt in the heavens, which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. The financial cost, the indebtedness was paid by the cross. It wasn't paid through 30 pieces of silver. God, Jesus didn't come and do a financial transaction. He nailed him very, he nailed his very self, or was nailed to the cross that that would be paid.

I mean, that is amazing. And you know, what's so interesting is the price that was paid was invaluable. The price of God himself is invaluable. You can't put a price tag on God. In the presence of God, nothing else has value. Granted, it's both and, because when we're in heaven, we'll have a value because the invaluable God loves us, and that's what gives us value.

But ultimately, nothing has value, because God can give everything. And so God lives on a different economy and a different system. And this woman, somehow, through her licentiousness, through her brokenness, got to a point that said, I want to change the system. Perhaps she sold herself. I mean, the implication is here, that she sold herself for money.

That she was willing to take money, and perhaps even this perfume was bought with that money, but Jesus still accepted it, because she was no longer willing to sell herself. And Jesus says that you are forgiven. Knowing this, once again, it says in the notes, how spiritually and emotionally tied do you actually want to be to money? The more I studied this text, the more I found out I am way too tied to money.

I grew up in a home where we didn't talk about money. It was just, we just, it wasn't something we talked about. My wife grew up in a family that talked a lot about it. And so we didn't talk about it. It was just kind of there. My dad didn't talk about it. He was a businessman. I never remember having a financial conversation with him until two weeks before he died, and he brought me into his office and kind of showed me a few things.

But we just didn't talk about it. Allowance would show up, even though I didn't do any chores. It was just kind of there. And so I grew up with this mindset that there's always more. There's, and I've kind of had that, but you know, that God will, not that God will sort it out, but it's just you grow up in different systems, right, of money. And that kind of can, I would say, brand us in a way to how we think about money today.

This, looking at this woman and realizing that money was a product of the fall really made me ask myself, how much do I want money to be tied into my emotions? I really want to be able to look at money and say, so what? I can use it. I can use it for good. But I want to look at it like sand in the beach. I want to force myself. I want to work at the spiritual discipline of letting money have no consequence over my emotional state and well-being.

That's tough to do. Believing, perhaps, that we have a God who can give everything we need. Let's look at verse 40 quickly, and we're going to pound through these verses quick. We've got four verses. In about 10 minutes, we'll hit through these. We're going to have a beautiful communion today. Verse 40. Jesus has something to say to Simon the leper.

We know this is Simon the leper. Great question this asks me, because a lot of times I look at, when I look at the scripture and prepare messages for us, because God speaks to me even as I'm preaching, I say, what is it saying and what question is it asking? And so you will hear in my preaching, a lot of times it's revelatory. I'm not a mass, a lot of different statistical, scriptural little bullet points where I'm going to overwhelm you with what the Greek says.

That's great teaching. It's just not who I am. What I want to do is see what God is saying in the text and what is it asking of us and what does it say to us. And the first question, these are questions I ask myself, and I don't think about the congregation and say, okay, how can I just get them a zinger? I would say the majority of the time, you know, a little tweet, something that's retweetable, I would be asking myself this question.

And what you are getting when I preach is a conversation I'm having with scripture that I'm having with God and oftentimes I'm having with myself. Jesus has something to say to Simon Peter, and here's the question that came to me. Are we, and I put we in there, not are you, I want you to know that's intentional when I put those questions in. On occasion it'll sneak by, but it's really us.

God speaking to me, we are locking shields, we are a living organism, we are the body of Christ. Are we willing to have Jesus say something to us, or are there areas in our lives that are inaccessible to Jesus? I mean, Jesus is sitting here, you know, next to Simon the leper, you know, like I'm here next to Kai, and all of a sudden, I don't know if, you know, things are happening, people are having their wine, they're doing their thing, and oh, I don't know, maybe it was just him, but he just kind of taps him, or however it is, and he looks at him and he says, hey, I got something to say to you.

That's really interesting. Do I give Jesus, do we give Jesus the ability to say something to us? Look here in the scripture, and Jesus answered him, Simon, I have something to say to you. That's powerful. I think God has something to say to you every day. I think God has something to say to you every day. And he replied, and I love his answer. What did he say?

Say it. Ugh. Ugh. Whew. Whew. Whew. That, really? Like, think about it. Jesus comes up to you. Hey, Ken, I got something to say to you. I'm gonna run, okay? I don't know about you. Like, I love that answer. Say it. You know, Grant, we can talk about money. You know, the thing I keep reminding myself, the church has been here 90 years without me. It doesn't need me.

I tell the staff that all the time. You know, and so in regard to, you know, pastors coming and saying, you know, trying to just, you know, get another little bit of blood out of the turn up and trying to, you know, guilt you into giving money. The church has been here a long time without any of us. And God, if he wants a church on this corner, it's gonna stay.

But perhaps he does have something to say to you. And the question to you, in regard to this, in regard to your sexual life, your emotional life, all the other things, are you willing to say to Jesus, say it. That's so powerful. I mean, what a powerful two words, right? Say it. I have a hard time asking Jesus to speak. I know there's some things he wants to talk to me about.

And lately I've just been like, we'll have that conversation later. We're just gonna have that conversation a little bit later. I don't know if anybody else does that. Maybe I'm too honest. So I guess the question, and focusing once again on this corner, because I'm asking myself, Jesus, in regard to our personal finance, let's bring it back to finance.

What are you saying to Carrie and my daughters and I? Are we willing to give up this to bless some works? Maybe it's unity for orphans. How are you? Say it. Say it. Say it. It's a great question. Verse 42. Neither person was able to pay the debt. I think that's key in this scripture. I think that scripture, there's enough biblical criticism and study to say that Jesus is making a point here that everyone has something to be forgiven and no one can pay the debt.

Look, if you have a mobster after you and you owe him a million dollars or ten dollars and he's coming and you're gonna get the same treatment either way, the debt doesn't matter, the cost of the debt. What matters is can you pay it or not? And I say, you might be the best, nicest person in the world. And that's one of the things the world thinks right now, that if you're nice, you're gonna end up okay with God.

Like there's this scale. And if you're just nice enough, you know, then you're gonna make it. Jesus is very clear. No one makes it. The only price that could settle the debt, you might have a penny worth of debt, but I gotta tell you what, if you don't have that penny, you ain't getting in to eternity forever with God. The only thing they could pay that was the invaluable cost of God's son, whom he sent.

Jesus did not come on his own court. He was sent by his father to be nailed to a cross and as a payment for our indebtedness, that believing, like this woman did, through faith, a spiritual transaction happens that pays your debt. That was the cost. And Jesus was sold for 30 pieces. You think about, 30 pieces of silver. They underestimated his value. They underestimated his value.

They were in debt. And I wanna say to you, you're in debt. If you have asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, then they are forgiven. Far as the east is from the west. But we still need to confess our sins to him on a regular basis and ask that we can walk in his righteousness. In the end, all of our debts can only be settled by the cost of forgiveness.

The cost of, and you'll see on the slide that was there, it's blood money. And the reason we used that and made it a little graphic, you wanna, can you throw that up there? The blood money thing? Jeff does such a great job. I don't know if it is up there. Jeff does such a great job on our slides and things. I don't know if we're able to get it. But if you look in your bulletin, you'll see it.

Yeah, I mean, we didn't wanna be grotesque. We went back and forth. It was like dripping with blood at one point. We're like, my daughter's like, dad, that's a little too much. I'm like, if my 15 year old tells me it's a little too much. But it was the cost of the blood. I mean, ultimately the gospel's grotesque. I mean, it costs blood for Jesus. And we put that up there because there's, there's something to be said about forgiveness and money and our relationship to the two.

I'm not quite sure, but for the first time ever, I'm seeing the connection stronger than I ever have. And so we just put that thumbprint on there. Jeff did such a great job up there. But it's Jesus, Jesus, Judas. We'll talk about Jesus and Judas next week. And Jesus, and what I think is about Jesus. Who did he let hold his wallet? Judas. Smart move, Jesus, right?

That's how much Jesus cared about money, right? Identity theft, I don't care. You know, I'll give you a new identity. I'll give you mine. And the cost for giving. This woman was forgiven because she gave. Now, I'm not saying you give the church money and you're forgiven. People do preach that. I'm not preaching that. She gave everything to Jesus and she was forgiven.

It's cool. We go back to the notes. We're almost done. Coming in for a landing now. Neither person was able to pay. Verse 47. For this reason, I say to you, her sins, which are many, for what reason? The reason that we looked at is that she kissed his feet. She had a relationship with Jesus that was intimate. She washed his feet with her hair. She took finance, a year's worth of the wages that she probably didn't even want that anymore.

It was probably the perfume that she used as she walked through the streets that would be there that would attract suitors, whatever it would be. She took it and she wanted it. It meant, I don't know what was the transaction that was going on in her mind, but something happened and because of this, she didn't pray a prayer. She just showed up. And you know, that's why sometimes I don't do a lot of like, make a decision now in church and if you come forward, you're going to be saved and I think that's really important and I've done it a little bit and we had 40 people stand up recently.

I think it's important. I will continue to do it. But I've been more and more impressed by people that are just willing to start following Jesus like Nicodemus did in the dark and maybe they're going to follow a little bit in the dark, but Nicodemus started following Jesus in John 3, 16 and you know where Nicodemus ended? Taking Jesus' body off the cross.

He was the one with Joseph of Arimathea who climbed upon the cross and removed the body of Jesus. That was a dangerous thing to do because it showed that you loved him and they came with an anointing for a king's burial with them. That was a dangerous thing and I just love this idea of people starting to follow Jesus and so if you were starting to follow Jesus, you don't have to figure it all out.

We're going to try to help you. We're going to have some classes and some different things so you can know, but just keep following. Keep showing up. Keep coming to places like this and begin to follow. For this reason, I say her many sins have been forgiven because she loved much, but he who forgiven little loves little. Her ability to love had a direct correlation to her generosity and led to ultimate freedom only found when we let go.

I want to give you the opportunity. Look, you don't have to give it to the church. You don't have to give it to this church. You know, if you want to test God in giving, go find a church down the street and give it to them and see. We're not asking for you. The church has been here 90 years without your wallet. It'll continue on. I'm not trying to be rude to you, but this is actually an opportunity for you to test God in this.

So, you don't have to give here. That's okay because God's going to take care of us. I'm not trying to be rude. I just want to release you to go have an exploration with God on this front. And if he blesses you, come back. No, I'm just kidding. It's a joke. You shouldn't have said that one. To start having freedom in your life, no matter, I mean, money's a big deal in La Jolla.

It's a big deal. Whenever people say, where do you, where do you pastor at? Like, if I get that one more time at a pastor's conference, yes, yes, there's some rich people that live around here. So what? You know? I just, what if we just weren't tied to it? What if we were just freely giving? What if you went home and the number, you know, I keep seeing on scales people that have, you know, we do their weight loss journey with them.

Some people are very open with that, their weight loss journey online and on Facebook. And one of the things that says, I'm not a number. Like, the scale's not a number. And I keep seeing that and that's true. And I think the same thing can be said for pastors with the size of the congregation they have. But also, you know what? Your value and your worth and your emotional well-being doesn't have to be tied to that number in your bank account.

What would it look like if we just let it all go and no longer let it cover us? Final point and we're done for communion. So communion team, don't get ready yet, but be on your toes. verse 50. He said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Wow. Peace. I bet that was, I bet she did go away in peace. She was honored by Jesus and I bet it was the first time she'd had peace in a long time.

Peace is an asset few people have today. Peace, hope, and joy. I want to say the emotional tank of our society is running very low on those things. And as believers, we want to do the things in our life that infuse peace, hope, and joy. A lack of attachment to material things, like Francis of Assisi did not want to have any attachment to money. Would give away everything every night.

I told this story not long ago. Francis of Assisi found a coin in his pocket at two in the morning one time when he was getting ready for prayers and he went out in the streets until he found a homeless person woke him up and gave the money away. That might be a little too much, too over the top, but he didn't want to have any attachment to money. That can give freedom and peace.

How much do you stress out about money? Even rich people stress out about money. I know that Jeff Bezos, the richest guy in the world now, sold a, I read this morning, sold a billion dollars worth of, is it a billion worth of stock? Like a bill, one bill. I think he's got 90 billion. Yeah, he sold a billion dollars worth of stock because he's financing this other space exploration company and he has to fund it with a billion dollars a year.

Don't, look, he might have 90 billion. He sleeps at night thinking, how am I going to pay for that spaceship? I'll tell you what, he does. It's a spaceship, but he's freaking out about it. So, what would it look like if we had no attachment to that? This woman had no attachment. Where do you put your faith? The final verse, forgiveness came after she took the first step.

I said last week that I've never heard a testimony where someone got up and said, you know what, I waited to give and God totally blessed me and now I'm going to start giving and I'm excited about how I'm going. I've just never heard that. It might exist. What I generally hear is people that are willing to do like this woman said and take a step towards God in faith because now there's a debt in our society today and it is an act of faith to give the things away that make us feel safe and this is what she did.

And so I want to encourage you, whatever it is, it doesn't have to be here at this church. It doesn't. Hopefully, God speaks to you and some of you do and we can, God's going to bless this corner, great. But to take a step, I'm encouraging you to take a step and we're going to talk finances. I know it's easy, like the cool thing now for pastors is to say generosity but not talk about giving.

I'm going to talk about finance, cash, okay? Think about how you use money, how you give it away, how generous you are. Make a plan and be consistent and do it with God. It doesn't have to be here. But take a step towards God in regard to your finance and see if it doesn't affect your emotional and mental well-being and not just so you can check it off but that we can have peace and say, God, I don't want this to have control over my life anymore.

This is a woman, her story will be told for eternity. Today it was told again, the gospel of generosity and lavishness with God. Let's stand as we get ready for communion. Let's stand as we get ready for communion. Let's stand as we get ready for communion. Let's stand as we get ready for communion.