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The Money Connection Part 1
Pastor Kevin Muyskens
Various Scripture
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Introduction: Four sermons on giving?
I’ve got a confession to make … it wasn’t my idea to preach on giving … Retreat last fall … three messages in six habits study last winter > spring …
-we’ve made wonderful improvements in giving as congregation … budget (slipped a few points below 100%, but typical summer vs. Nov. & Dec.) … that’s not motivation
-neither is that pledge time is coming …
Original idea was from the Stewardship committee … had all read Treasure Principle … Deacons had read … inspiring, challenging, on the mark … Donation to give to whole congregation … Pastor would you consider doing series …
I like input for preaching … can’t always get to it … sometimes not appropriate for the situation of the congregation right at this time … BUT positive encouragement from Committee with backing from deacons … I had read book … glad to see it get into hands of more people … timing fit with six habits … deeper focus on two …
Put all those things together with the fact that I didn’t want to do it … leading from God! So here we are … teaching and inspiration type messages… point to joy of and purpose in giving … hoped for outcome: increased joy in your life … avoided outcome … guilt trip. Application: I’ll tell you up front, three weeks from today I will encourage you to sign the giving covenant in back of Treasure Principle …no tricks, not guilt, solid biblical teaching & some encouragement …
Title: The Money Connection … money connection to our faith … James 2:18b “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.”
Checkbook, financial statement … show me what’s important … faith to follow Jesus, to obey Jesus, to trust that the life of obedience is the abundant life Jesus promises … one of easiest areas to see it is how we use our money … good check … probably why Jesus talked so much about money. Will we accept God’s perspective on our money?
Old Testament Text …God’s perspective? Both texts here … Eye as lamp of body as lead!!!
Deuteronomy 8:10-18 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.
Matthew 6:19-23 19 “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. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Last couple verses … sermon on Mount … really wanted to get back to … very interesting how they support the bigger section.
How do we perceive the world?
-Jewish understanding … eye lamp of world
-what you can see in the beam of flashlight; headlights on very dark stretch of road … that is your world
Jesus uses a bit differently … lamp of eye not only illuminates what is outside … illuminates the inside … the lamp of the body … if bad the whole body is full of darkness
-everything comes in through that filter
-i.e. dirty windshield … very hard to see
Eyes are clouded, misshapen –we’ll have a warped perspective on the world
-close tie to the heart … who we are … core, soul … react to what we see through the eye … if the eye is evil the whole body is full of darkness
How we see things greatly affects who we are!
Specific context: our treasures … our wealth … how do we see it? What lens will we use? Lens of faith that can see God’s hand at work and trust his promises, or the lens that only sees the physical world around us?
With what perspective will we view our wealth: God’s perspective or that of fallen humanity?
In God’s perspective wealth and prosperity are both a blessing and a clear and present danger. Like a dangerous tool …. Knife … cut your meat & vegetables but also cut off finger …
Setting of Deuteronomy
Danger of prosperity looms
Danger = pride … vs. 14 …
-to fight pride Moses reminds them of wilderness journey they have just completed … impossible to complete on their own … water from rock … manna (daily – couldn’t store) … “to humble you and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.”
-vs. “I can do it myself” (child’s cry)
-prove they couldn’t do it by themselves
Danger = pride = “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of MY hands have produced this wealth for me.’”
Isn’t that our danger … believing we do it ourselves …
Clear concept from this Scripture: The Lord gives you the ability to produce wealth. God’s perspective on our wealth … he is the source of all of it … vs. fallen human perspective … I can do it myself … pride … great sin … falsely lifts us out of our place as servants … have to take care of self … evil perspective: separates us from the one who provides
We know this … we admit this … God is our creator all we have comes from him … Perspective …
Key #1: God owns everything. I’m his money manager.
What Moses is trying to remind Israel on the verge of prosperity … it’s all God’s … it’s all from God … ability to produce wealth is a blessing of God keeping covenant … we must keep covenant … faith … live out instructions … accept his perspective …
It’s all Gods … my house & car, my business & ability to do my job, my checking account & retirement investments, my time and my talents … they are all his … they come from him and belong to him … I am simply managing them for him. I think we understand this concept very well; most of you could name it: stewardship … do we apply it in faith?
Had coffee with a money manager this week … talked about joys and successes, frustrations and failures.
-Primarily about relationship
-success was helping someone well enough that they would trust his knowledge and that he was trying to do things in their best interest
-joy of job was developing friendships
-failure was lack of trust and doubts and finger pointing …
-frustrations – people couldn’t see benefits for the cost
-As a money manager his primary interest is to serve the investor is such a way that a trusting relationship is developed.
secondarily about financial achievements
-investment that takes off
-insurance that meets the appropriate need.
Assume; hope he was being honest … his gain will be realized through a good relationship … his gain doesn’t factor into advice he gives client … lots of trouble if he does … SEC, state agencies, own company, local office … all have checks …
We are managing God’s money
1. It’s primarily about relationship … God want us to know its all his to keep pride out of relationship … pride puts us in opposition to God; I can do it myself … stewardship puts us on the same team … How can I serve your interests?
2. It is secondarily about achievement … wise investments of God’s money … meet our needs … serve kingdom needs
3. Don’t have an SEC looking over our shoulder … but God knows … are we serving our interests or his. We draw needed funds from his wealth to pay our living expenses. ?too lavish?
Not guilt … -do we make wise investments? …
Do we have the perspective of the money manager? First serving the investor? Knowing that that will serve us best in the end as well?
That perspective leads back to our New Testament passage:
Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.
Key #2 My heart always goes where I put God’s money.
Truth of this … Examples
-things we put money toward hold our interest
(time and talent as well)
Negative way of saying it … “What we own, owns us.”
True? … ask a business owner
-home owner – build a house
-boat owner
-land lord
What we own; owns us … when we put our money toward something our hearts go with it …
These are not bad things … but danger if we are wealthy in earthly things they will be very hard to leave … our citizenship is not on this earth … new heaven and new earth … get too attached to things that can and eventually will be destroyed.
A GOOD THING AS WELL
-when fighting/ethnic cleansing was going on in Rwanda … was interested more than normal …
Compassion International child … $30/ month… piqued my interest
-Christian School – tremendous parental involvement
-teach Sunday school … greater interest in it succeeding
-Sat on church councils for 12 years now
-few exceptions: new elders learn more about ministries … give time and energy … also begin to give money … heart goes there … much more interested
-travel to missionaries/ CRWRC sites
Like one of truths in marriage counseling … act in love, feelings will follow
-put our money into kingdom things our heart will follow
Conclusion:
This is God’s perspective regarding our money:
For God what we do with our money is intimately connected with our relationship with him.
1. Do we recognize him as the owner of all and also as the one who gives us the ability to produce wealth? If we do we’ll serve his interests and use the wealth we manage to strengthen our trust relationship with him.
2. Do we recognize that we can use our money to draw our hearts toward him? That we can invest in heaven every time we care for the needy, invest in the spread of the gospel to the world, support the kingdom work through the local church.
Whatever we own, owns us … If we own shares in the work of the kingdom, God will own us. We will belong to him. Since the ability to produce wealth comes from him. Since he is the creator and owner of the universe who cares for us as his sons and daughters, what better place, more blessed position can there be than for us to belong to him?
Money is a great blessing and a great danger. It is a wonderful tool to expand God’s kingdom and especially to bring us closer to him. But it is also a great danger as it gives us the illusion of self-sufficiency which leads to pride and drives a wedge between us and God.
Last week we talked about faith … faith to invest all we have in the kingdom … to risk it all on God’s faithfulness. One of the key places for us to work out this faith is in the use of the wealth with which God has blessed us. Is it his or ours? Will we use it to draw our hearts toward God or away from him?
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