Put down the Kool-Aid: Money will make you happy

(Friday night Martha and I went to see Soul Surfer. Excellent movie.)

Soul Sanctuary has a family seminar tonight.
Pray for the flood victims

www.EastView.org
Songs.
We stand and lift up our hands.
You are Holy (Prince of Peace)
You will never let me go.
He Knows My Name
Choir: What Wondrous Love is This? For my soul. When from death I'm free I'll sing on through eternity.

Video Clip. Money makes me happy.
Pastor Dave Ens:
Nov 18, 1978 800 people committed suicide by drinking cyanide laced Kool-Aid. (shortly after that we did a survey, for Here's Life and some people responded with this event as an example of the badness of religion)
Put down the Kool-Aid. There is abundant life available.
Money is often a big lie. We have embraced the lie that money is the best thing in life.
Go to a higher paying job. Everyone understands.
An island off the coast of Australia, Nauru was mined of fertilizer till it was uninhabitable.
Soon they could not grow any food. Today they have no local food. Everyone will die of over eating junk food. One Islander bought a Lamborghini but was too fat to get in the car. (only 13,000 inhabitants they now have an international debt of $1B)

We pursue money. That should not be our goal. The way we use money should show that we have been changed by God. Sell everything? Is your money for yourself? Where your treasure is your heart will be.
Think about your first dating relationship. Your whole being gets wrapped up in it.
Zack the wealthy tax man. Jesus did not lay out any rules. He built a relationship and it changed Zack.
Has your Money been transformed?
In 2004 3.5 B$ was spent on cellphone ringtones. Is that a transformed perspective?
Eternal perspective? Nauru people lives off trust funds today.
2Cor 9:6-8 she one who sows bountifully reaps bountifully. Join God-He is generous. We are most like God when we give. Tithe - a tenth part. Give it to God. We need to learn to be generous. Train kids to share.

Tithing trains us to be generous. When we turn money over to God it changes us. May your wallet be transformed.

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Questions:
What does the Bible mean when it says-
Work if you want to eat?
Work as unto the Lord?
Don't be a sluggard?
"Work" appears 555 times in the Bible?
Work will be rewarded?
God will judge the quality of each man's work?
I worked much harder?
Work- do something useful?
Could it be that the Protestant work ethic is obedience to God? Could it be that the "manana" work ethic causes poverty?
Why should we feel guilty about having worked and earned?
Could it be that the only way to help the poor is to provide them with the gospel?