|
The Money Connection Part 2
Kevin Muyskens
Various Scripture
Intro: Heavenly Paving Stones
Very devout – very wealthy believer on death bed having a hard time letting go of the things of this earth … negotiating with the LORD … ‘I just can’t leave it all behind … can’t I take something with me?”
Finally God says okay … 1 suitcase … man calls lawyer; converts assets into gold bars … fills suitcase … dies
-Meets Peter at pearly gates … (by the way, I’ll be really surprised if our entry to heaven has anything to do with meeting Peter at the gates, just works well for stories) … lugging this incredibly heavy suitcase … Peter says, “Can’t bring that in here.” Rule 419 … “Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.” …
“White robe from Jesus for the great banquet, that’s it.” …
“No, the LORD made an exception for me … can you check?”
“Highly unusual.. but okay I’ll check …” “Well, I guess so, one suitcase … by the way that looks really heavy. What do you have in there?”
The man opens the suitcase and shows Peter the gold bars to which Peter responds. “Paving stones? Why did you lug a suitcase full of paving stones all the way up here?”
Our perspective will be incredibly different five minutes after we die.
Five minutes after we die.
Alfred Nobel got a taste of this perspective when he read his own obituary in 1888. His brother had died and an editor had mistaken their identities. Headline read “The Merchant of Death Is Dead.” He was the inventor of dynamite. Alfred Nobel’s obituary described a man who had gotten rich by helping people kill one another.
Shaken by this appraisal of his life, Nobel resolved to use his wealth to change his legacy. When he died eight years later, he left more than $9 million to fund awards for people whose work benefited humanity. The awards became known as the Nobel Prizes.
Alfred Nobel had a rare opportunity to look at the assessment of his life at its end and still have the chance to change it. Unbelievers have no second chance to relive their lives, this time choosing Christ. But Christians also get not second chance to live life over, this time doing more to help the needy and invest in God’s kingdom. We have one brief opportunity—a lifetime on earth—to use our resources to make a difference.
Five minutes after we die, we’ll know exactly how we should have lived. But God has given us His Word so we don’t have to wait to die to find out. And He’s given us His Spirit to empower us to live that way now.
Ask yourself, Five minutes after I die, what will I wish I would have given away while I still had the chance? When you leave this world, will you be known as one who accumulated treasures on earth that you couldn’t keep? Or will you be recognized as one who invested treasures in heaven that you couldn’t lose? (Alcorn 77-79)
It takes the eyes of faith to make this appraisal now and live accordingly. Alcorn says, and I agree, the biggest roadblock to our giving is the illusion that this earth is our home!
Eyes of Faith
According to Hebrews that’s what the ancients were commended for … “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for..Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham…13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
Incredible examples: Building Arks … moving whole family without knowing where going … Eyes on heaven … admitting they were strangers on earth … believed and acted on …
I believe natural gas price will be expensive this winter. I believe it’s going to get cold. I could choose to live in the illusion … that it won’t be so bad … or I can do what my agenda for tomorrow is … go to the store, buy weather stripping for a couple doors that aren’t tight, plastic for a few of the older windows … energy audit in December … live in faith … reward of lower energy bills this winter …
Doesn’t make sense to spend money and time if I don’t believe in high gas prices and cold weather; but I do.
Reward:
A couple words on reward … in this group I am certain that some are uncomfortable with this idea … earning heavenly rewards … sending treasure on ahead … not spiritual enough … should be completely altruistic, not the least concerned with ourselves …
All I can say is the Bible talks a lot about rewards … in Hebrews, the heavenly city prepared for the faithful. Jesus talked a lot about rewards … “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…”(Matthew 6:19-20)
We are clearly instructed to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Let us not try to be more spiritual than Jesus.
Roadblocks: Eyes of Fallen Humanity
I don’t actually think that the biggest issue with rewards is that we might be earning them. I think the biggest issue is we feel like we are giving them away. I think the biggest roadblock to giving is the illusion that this earth is our home. Too often, instead of living by the eyes of faith we live by the eyes of fallen humanity … what we see is what we get … I’ve worked hard for my money, my things why would I just give them away? Don’t I deserve to enjoy the fruits of my labor?
We think that our joy is going to come because of what we have, or what we drive, or where we live, or where we are able to go. The eyes of faith tell us this is not the case, but the eyes of fallen humanity say that the stuff I can’t afford, that would really bring joy and happiness.
A wise man named Solomon spent testing this theory. He had virtually unlimited power and resources. He was king. He was rich. He had no intellectual equals and for a time he denied himself no pleasure that he set his mind on. He found that all these pleasures and the riches that provided them were meaningless.
“Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless.” (Ecc 5:10)
The sleep of a laborer is sweet,
whether he eats little or much,
but the abundance of a rich man
permits him no sleep. (Ecc 5:12)
Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb,
and as he comes, so he departs.
He takes nothing from his labor
that he can carry in his hand.
16 This too is a grievous evil:
As a man comes, so he departs,
and what does he gain,
since he toils for the wind?” (Ecc 5:15-16)
Solomon assures us that we take nothing material from this life … nothing we can carry in the hand … in the end we leave as we depart, naked and penniless. In the midst of his reflections he says it is all a chasing after the wind. At least if this life is all that there is. If we live under the illusion that this world is our home …
Heaven, not earth, is my home.
When you go camping, or stay in a hotel do you do the landscaping, repaint the rooms? No, a temporary stay. Same attitude toward this life … harder for this life is all we see …
I should live not for the dot but for the line.
Long time since sophomore geometry … a dot is an absolutely specific place … infinitely small … where you must begin … need a specific place … this earthly life.
A line starts from the dot and goes on forever … eternity … do you live for the dot or the line … for the short term or the long? Do I spend a little money and a half a day winterizing my house tomorrow or just enjoy the day? Does Noah build the ark or enjoy the sunshine while it lasts? Does Abraham go wandering in faith or continue to live among his idol worshipping people?
Living for the line, claiming my citizenship in heaven will drastically transform my use of God’s resources.
Picture living in the South toward the end of the civil war … only a matter of time … have confederate dollars … what going to do … transfer them into other wealth … gold, equipment, land, union dollars … only a fool wouldn’t
-Solomon elsewhere … The fool says in his heart there is no God … fool not to think of heavenly home … to live for the dot rather than the line …
How do we open the eyes of faith and allow them to transform our use of God’s resources? A good question to ask is, how will I look at my life five minutes after I die?
Talked about Alfred Nobel … transformed his image … Nobel Prizes.
Oscar Schindler … Schindler’s List… German industrialist during WWII … used cheap Jewish labor … basically slave labor … at one point says, “I’ve done what I came here for. I’ve got more money than any man can spent in a lifetime.”
But his eyes are opened to what the Germans are doing in exterminating the Jewish people … his workers are next … makes a list and spends a great amount of money buying the lives of over a thousand Jewish workers for his factory … no longer about making money but about saving lives …
End of war … Jews write a letter telling what he has done … thank him with a gold ring formed from a man’s fillings …
PLAY VIDEO … EXACTLY 3 MINUTES … BEGIN WITH RING … END WITH GROUP HUG
Transformation of Schindler’s view of money from personal comfort and prestige to a tool for saving lives …
I hope we’d agree with his priorities, and that’s still only dealing with life in this world …
Conclusion:
Five minutes after we die we won’t care a bit whether we lived in a trailer house or a mansion. Five minutes after we die it won’t matter whether we were the CEO or the janitor. Give minutes after we die it won’t matter whether we drove a rusted out Buick or a BMW.
What will matter 5 minutes after we die? What did we do for Christ? What did we do for the least who are his brothers and sisters? Who will be there to greet us in part because of how we used the resources God has allowed us to use?
This is a challenge: Will we regret the money wasted? But this is also a source of great joy. Will we be greeted by Tsunami victims whose homes were rebuilt by CRWRC workers? Will we be greeted by those who as children found joy in singing those hyper VBS songs? Will we be greeted by a family who came to Christ because their children attended the school where send support?
The greatest obstacle to giving and to serving is the illusion that this world is our home. How will we evaluate our decisions five minutes after we die?
|