In many respects – money makes the world go around. At least the economy. Can’t live without it. And yet as good a servant as it is – it’s a brutal master. And so many, many people live under the tyranny of wealth. So what if anything does God have to say about setting us free?

 

The Root of All Evil

I don’t think that there’s a single person on the planet who is not affected by money or at least what money represents: value, wealth. Most of the time it seems that we don’t have quite enough. Some, in fact, many of the people listening to this programme today, around the world, simply don’t have enough to feed their families, or provide for their basic needs – a safe home, education, health services … Yet in the affluent west where we have so much money compared to most people in the world, there’s so much middle class debt that it’s become a pandemic. People are drowning in personal debt, credit cards maxed out.

The cry of a whole generation is that we don’t have enough and yet by any objective measure, we have more that enough. Sure, economies fluctuate, interest rates go up and down and inflation strikes, unemployment, house prices … all those things effect people’s disposable incomes but why is money such a big issue and why do so many people who have enough, feel as though they don’t?

That’s why today we are kicking off a teaching series called, “Money Matters – a Kingdom Perspective”. Because God’s wisdom in the area of money (as counter-intuitive as it may seem to you and me) is powerful, it’s effective and it sets us free from the tyranny of wealth.

Now we all, to a greater or lesser degree, are products of our environment. Our circumstances, our culture and wealth in most cultures is a big thing. Not all, but most. It goes with position, power, status, recognition, comfort … let’s face it; they’re all pretty seductive things. Who doesn’t want to live in a nice house? Who doesn’t want to drive a nice car? Who doesn’t want to wear nice clothes? They are all pretty much universal desires, even though they work themselves out in quite different ways in different countries and cultures.

There is a basic premise; a central thesis around which our societies and cultures operate. If my needs and wants are met, then I’ll be at the very least nine tenths of the way to being happy and contented and satisfied. This is the central tenet of advertising, it makes the economy go round. If people in the West didn’t want expensive clothes, shoes and handbags, people in developing countries wouldn’t have jobs.

All this leads to trade and commerce and that’s a good thing, and to an extent, that’s true. We need trade and commerce, otherwise there would be a lot of unemployed people around and that’s not good.

But this central tenet of happiness – me being able to have everything I want and do anything I want – also brings a lot of trouble into this world. It’s why people argue and fight and have conflict; it’s why countries fight wars; it’s why people rob banks (well, maybe you and I don’t rob banks so much), it’s why people tell little lies on their tax returns. That brings it a bit closer to home then.

It’s in fact why we need governments, laws, police forces, court houses and jails. It’s why we need armies and air forces and navies, because ultimately we can’t all have what we want, so there have to be mechanisms for dealing with the conflict between individual wants and needs and the social good; the broader good.

That’s what all these institutions are about; balancing out selfishness in the context of society. We can’t all have what we want. It doesn’t stop us from trying of course. I want, I want, I want, I want to win. And so, because money or wealth are powerful, powerful components of winning, all of a sudden it’s as though we have become enslaved to them.

Why does a family of four need a house so big that they can live in the place and almost never see one another? Why do we need a hundred thousand dollar car when a twenty five thousand dollar car would admirably do us, say to get us from A to B? Because we all, to some extent, covet wealth and what goes with it – comfort and recognition. We want to win. It becomes an obsession, people working so hard to keep up appearances; to conform to what appears to be the social norm in their people group. All of a sudden wealth becomes a tyrant, which is something we are going to look at later in the programme.

Jesus said this in Luke chapter 12, verse 34. He said:

For where your treasure is there your heart will also be.

But God doesn’t have a problem with money, per se; in fact, He has a whole bunch of good advice about money. He has no problem with people working and earning money and enjoying the fruits of their labours, in fact, one of the wisest men of all time, King Solomon, in the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes, writes this – Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 19:

All to whom God gives wealth and possessions and whom he enables to enjoy them and to accept their lot and find enjoyment in their toil, this is the gift of God.

So, does God have a problem with money? Nope, not at all! The problem … the problem lies in our attitude towards the money. First Timothy chapter 6, verse 10:

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and in their eagerness to be rich, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

See, there’s the problem! And over these coming weeks we are going to start exploring not just the problem so we truly understand it and can identify it in our own hearts, but God’s solution; God’s answer; God’s way of setting us free from the tyranny of the love of money in our lives, the plague of desiring wealth, and turning it back to what it was meant to be. Money is meant to be something that serves us, rather than something that rules us.

So I have to warn you – don’t say I didn’t warn you – that God’s solution, as is often the case, flies completely and absolutely in the face of the wisdom of this world. It lies in an upside down, counter intuitive principle of sacrifice. Listen to this. Luke chapter 9, verse 24:

For those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.

See, it’s a principle about the whole of our lives as well as our money. The more we hoard money, and the more that the love of money runs deeper and deeper in our hearts, then the more we are going to bear the fruit that comes from the root. And the fruit that comes from the root of the love of money, as Paul writes to his young protégé Timothy here, is all kinds of evil.

It causes us to wander away from our faith in God because of our eagerness to be rich and as a result we experience pain. Lots of it. We end up piercing ourselves with many pains – debt, fear, financial insecurity, a maxed out credit card, long hours of work to pay for this financial madness – many pains.

That’s why God’s treatment for this malady is so radical; so upside down; so counter to anything that you or I, who have the propensity to love money, would ever have come up with.

For those who want to save their lives will lose them but those who lose their lives for my sake (Jesus) will save them.

 

A Brutal Master

We are talking together today and over the coming few weeks about the whole subject of ‘money’. So many people have so many problems with money. Whether rich or poor, money causes so many problems. So many people are deep in debt – up to their eyeballs. So many people are struggling incredibly with their finances and fear and uncertainty and then the economy takes a plunge or interest rates go up or they have too many credit cards to pay.

Or perhaps you have a share portfolio – that’s your saving for your retirement – and you’ve been enjoying watching it rise like a cake in the oven, only to see it collapse as something completely outside your control, spooks the share market.

There seems to me to be a couple of things tied up in all of this. Firstly, we imagine somehow that our wellbeing depends absolutely on the house we have; on the life style we have been accustomed to; the car that we drive. In other words, if we didn’t have those things – if we lost those things – that life, somehow, wouldn’t be worth living. And secondly, because we love money or at the very least, we are prone to loving money and the things that we can buy with it, we are afraid of letting it go.

When you love someone or something, you don’t want to let it go. That’s why parents who have invested so much in their kids, cry when this young adult decides to move to another town to study or to go to work. They love their children; they don’t want to let them go, even though the time has come.

Earlier we looked at this verse. First Timothy chapter 6, verse 10:

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and in their eagerness to be rich, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

I want to tell you how much I relate to that. Money was always more than“money” to me before I met Jesus. Money wasn’t just “money”, it was wealth; it had a life of its own; it was a symbol of success and ability. It was something to show off so other people would know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that I was a clever little fellow. And so here’s what I did: I worked myself into the ground, I ruined relationships, I worked so hard that it made me sick, not just physically sick from time to time, but emotionally sick and spiritually sick and socially sick.

I was driven to succeed and the tangible symbol of that success was money. I know of another businessman who took the sales of a well known retail chain’s computer division from a few million into over half a billion in just a few years. He was the retail guru of the country. Everyone looked at him as the personification of success. He was earning, not surprisingly, big, big dollars.

I have heard him share his testimony a few times – he told me how when the whole world wanted a piece of him; when he was the golden haired boy, not just within his company, but in retailing across the country, he was vomiting up blood in the toilet, hardly sleeping, his marriage was falling apart and he hardly knew his kids.

Let’s just listen to these words of wisdom from the Apostle Paul again and let them sink in. First Timothy chapter 6, verse 10:

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and in their eagerness to be rich, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

Do you see how true that is? I wonder if you were to just stop for a moment and think of your life and how you treat money. Let me ask you, to what extent has this ‘servant’ become your master? What are the things you are doing to serve this master of wealth that are bearing evil fruit in your life? How is wealth drawing you away from Jesus? What are the pains that you are suffering right now because you just have to have the money? You just have to have the job that’s an hour and a half’s commute away each way, morning and night, that pays ten or fifteen percent more than the other job you could have had that’s much closer to home!

So you don’t see the kids and you get up early and you go to bed late and you’re exhausted and your marriage is at risk and your children barely know you and you have no idea what’s going on in their life – all for what – ten or fifteen percent more? Is it worth it? “Aw, but if I didn’t earn that extra money I wouldn’t be able to pay my mortgage!”

Okay, so what about a smaller house – will the world come to an end? Yeah, it will, because somehow we have all convinced ourselves that it will if we can’t maintain our current lifestyles – each one of us. Do you get it? It is such a sham – it is such a lie! And yet we sacrifice our lives on the altar of this deception, trying to serve the false god of wealth. Hello!

Friend, listen to me! Money is a tyrant; it is a brutal master and if we choose to serve that master it will tear us apart. By choosing to serve that master we are piercing ourselves with many, many, many pains. Now, maybe you have mastered money in your life but many, in fact, most people haven’t. The greatest majority are slaves to money and is it any wonder that as a slave to a brutal master, life isn’t quite what it promised to be.

Money isn’t bringing us the happiness, either because we are working so hard or our expectations are so high that we can’t ever meet them or we are so far in debt and the storm clouds are rolling in on the economic horizon. Jesus put it this way, Matthew chapter 6, verse 24. He said:

No one can serve two masters. For a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

And that “mammon” means the false god of wealth and greed. And the thing with that false god is this: no matter how attractive and enticing it may at first appear, it is a brutal, brutal master to any slave.

 

The Mastery of Money

Money, as we saw earlier, money is a brutal master that as the Apostle Paul writes, “… can pierce us with many pains.” We chase after this elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but when we sacrifice our lives to it, all we discover is pain and loss. So, what do we do about it? Well, here’s the thing: it’s a question of deciding who is the boss. Who is serving whom?

I have spent so much of my life serving this false god of mammon; this god of wealth. Let’s just go back to what Jesus said about this. Matthew chapter 6, verse 24:

No one … no one can serve two masters for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Now, I would like to unpack this word “mammon” a bit. It means, Webster’s Dictionary definition:

“mammon” – the false god of riches and avarice; riches regarded as an object of worship in greedy pursuit; wealth as an evil, more or less personified so it looks like a god and not some inanimate object.

The Oxford Dictionary defines it as:

the god of wealth, regarded as evil or immoral. Those who worship “mammon” are equivalent to greedy people who value money too highly.

So Jesus wasn’t saying here: you can’t serve God and money – its wealth; it’s this god of wealth, this desire that happens in our hearts. So please, let’s not get the idea that Jesus is saying that somehow money, in and of itself, is a bad thing. That somehow none of us should have any of it. No, He’s saying that for some of us, we have an unhealthy attitude to it. We desire it too much and it’s become our god, ahead of our God in heaven. That’s what He’s saying!

So, the decision, the very clear decision we need to make is which of these two gods are we going to serve? Because Jesus is quite right, we can only serve the one or the other. If my heart is after God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit – the one true, living God – then as we are going to see a bit later in this series, that’s not a course that always leads us to great earthly riches. It, in fact, can be completely the opposite.

Or we serve the god of this world; the god of wealth; mammon. And we’ll throw all our energy into building up treasures here on this earth. And the reason we can’t serve them both is that wherever we invest our energies and our heart; wherever we store up our treasures, either at the feet of mammon or at the feet of the living God, that’s where our heart is going to be – one or the other, not both.

Let me take you back of the very first of the Ten Commandments, Exodus chapter 20, verses 2 and 3. God says:

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt; out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.

God is the God who sent His Son to die for you and me and He will not have any other god that comes ahead of Him in our hearts. So it’s the one of the other. Who will be my master; who will be your master? The god of wealth or the God who created the heavens and the earth and everything that’s in them. Have you ever asked yourself that question? Money is a battle ground for our hearts. Our allegiance will either be to self and wealth or to God.

And that’s why I said earlier on in the programme that God’s solution for us is simply not palatable. Luke chapter 9, verse 24:

Those who want to save their life will lose it; those who want to lose their lives for my sake will save it.

That applies to all of our lives and it applies especially to our money. The more I try to build up my treasure here on earth, the more I’m going to lose the life that God had planned. The more I‘m prepared to give it away, on the other hand – not always all of it, but often a pretty fair chunk of it – the more I’ll discover my life.

Oh, I know … I know so many people don’t want to hear that. We will be talking a lot about this over the coming weeks; God’s radical solution to the slavery that comes with wealth, that so many people are under in their allegiance to wealth and perhaps a whole bunch of people are going to say, “Well, I don’t need this stuff, I don’t want to hear this.” Good, don’t! But what will happen is you will continue to be pierced by the many pains that come through the evil that inevitably grows out a love of money – the root of all kinds of evil.

Many, many, many people live their whole lives in those pains. And that’s a choice that God gives each one of us but the alternative – whilst it requires an iron resolve in the short term – is what delivers real life, abundant life, in the medium and longer terms. Jesus again said – Matthew chapter 6, beginning at verse 19. He said:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust can consume them and where thieves break in and steal; instead store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves cannot break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body.

So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is actually darkness, how great is your darkness! No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

So there it is! There is a decision that confronts us. A dog cannot have two masters, a dog cannot serve two masters, but it’s not that in serving God, you and I can’t have any money – that’s not what He is saying. It’s about who gets our allegiance, God or mammon?

See, if I give my allegiance to the false god of mammon, then I would be prepared to give up the things of God for the mammon that I serve – the wealth, the recognition, the fame. If on the other hand, I choose to give my allegiance to the real God, the living God, then I will be prepared to give up the things of mammon for the living God whom I serve.

And the reason so many people want to have a foot in both camps is they don’t want to give up the things of mammon. Giving away money, oh, ouch, that hurts! I mean significant money, more than just the loose change in our pockets or our handbags when the plate comes around church on Sunday or when someone knocks on our front door for the poor. No, I’m talking real money; something that costs us something. That’s why we can’t have a foot in both camps – you just can’t because these two masters make different and conflicting demands.

I remember when I first became a Christian, the notion of giving away even a tenth of my income – I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. That’s a lot of money, I thought. I was earning a lot of money back in those days. How can they possibly want me to do this? How can God possibly want me to do this? He wants us to do it because He loves us and He doesn’t want us to be a slave to wealth and so many people are.

Now, next week we are going to meet a man who had to make a terrible decision. We are going to see the choice that Jesus gave him and the path that he chose in choosing between mammon and the living God.

Let me bring you back to this question though, which one are you serving? Are you serving the true, living God with all that you are and with all that you have? Or are you a slave to the false god of wealth, this mammon? Which one of these two do you truly, truly want to serve with your life?

One of the things that many of us are suspicious about are ministries that ask for money. Religion and money can be a toxic combination. And yet – God has a plan to involve His people in His work. So does God really need our money? Or is He after something else altogether?

 

God Wants our Hearts

I used to wonder a lot why it is, that God in His Book, His story, His love letter to us, this thing we call “the Bible” – I used to wonder why is it that God talks so much about money? Why does He talk about it so much, so directly and so painfully sometimes?

And to tell you the truth, I used to be very sceptical of Christian ministries, like the one in which I now serve, who put out their hands – that’s how I saw it – for money. Hang on, hang on, hang on, this all smells of a bit fishy. And so the picture I had in my head was quite simply this: this thing called the Bible is just a book written by a bunch of self-serving religious people who want to get their hands on my hard earned cash. That’s honestly how I was it.

I don’t have that view anymore, although I am still a bit sceptical of the tele-evangelists who ask me for money to buy a jet, or who drives a Rolls Royce, I have to say. I believe in being a wise steward of what God’s given me and I see a whole bunch of more pressing needs in this world than those.

And so today in this second message, in this series called, “Money Matters – A Kingdom Perspective” what I wanted to do is to share with you the profound teaching from God’s Word that changed my mind about this … this money thing. The thing that helped me let go of the tight rein on my purse strings and open my heart and my wallet to the desperate needs of people – physical, emotional and spiritual – right across this world.

Every now and then we receive a letter or an email here at Christianityworks, asking a very simple question about ministry and money. Generally the question goes something like this: “Okay, if you guys are a “faith” ministry like you say you are; if you really do believe that God will provide all your needs, why is it you just sent me a letter asking me for money? Why don’t you just rely on God?”

You know what? That is not an unreasonable question. In fact, it’s quite a good question. And the assumption that seems to underpin it is that having faith in God for His provision and involving people in supporting His work, that those two are somehow mutually exclusive. The assumption is this: if you guys had faith, God would just provide so don’t send out letters and emails. Now I want to look at that by taking you and me for that matter, to the Bible, directly into God’s Word.

It was at a time when God was commanding Moses to build the very first tabernacle; the Tent of Meeting; the mobile forerunner if you will, to the temple that was ultimately built in Jerusalem, many years later by King Solomon. Have a listen:

The LORD said to Moses: Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all those whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me. This is the offering that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine linen, goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins, fine leather, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and for the breast-piece. And have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them.

That comes from Exodus chapter 25, verses 1 to 8.

All the things in that list were incredibly things, but please … please note with me, God’s approach. God commanded Moses to go to God’s people and ask them to give an offering. Not to cajole them, not to twist their arms, not to shame them or manipulate them, but to go to all those whose hearts prompt them to give.

It was those whose hearts had been moved to give from whom Moses was to receive this precious offering unto the Lord. So here in the Bible, God commands the very first fundraiser; God commands Moses to go and ask God’s people for money. So it seems that faith on the one hand and engaging God’s people in giving on the other, well, they’re not mutually exclusive in God’s eyes. As it turns out, the exact opposite is true; they are intimately connected.

So God really need my money? Does He need your money? Again, it’s not a bad question! The last time I checked God was the creator of the whole universe. He owns it all! Everything that’s in it was made for His glory and His pleasure. He owns the cattle, the Bible tells us, on a thousand hills. So, hunch is that God isn’t sitting up there in heaven sweating on my donation or yours. You see, God isn’t anxious or concerned about how He’s going to fund His mighty deeds on this earth and nor should any minister or ministry in God’s service be so concerned. Completely to the contrary, Jesus clearly taught us that God knows every need and that when we first seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, all that we need to meet our needs will follow along behind. Matthew chapter 6.

And as I look throughout my Bible, from Moses, whom we have just discussed, right through to the Apostle Paul, who did a whole bunch of fundraising for the Christians in Jerusalem who were suffering in a famine, what I see is that the way God usually works – not always, but usually – is that He involves His people in funding His work. Let me say that again: He involves His people in funding His work.

God’s normal practice is to get us involved! So, if He doesn’t actually need our money, why does He do that? The reason is that He wants, not so much our money, but our hearts. Remember what He said to Moses – who was to give: “… those whose hearts prompted them to give.” And God knows that our hearts are attached to our wallets. Now, I’m sorry to be that direct but it’s true. That’s exactly what Jesus said! Now this comes from a wonderful passage of teaching about not worrying all the time as to how our physical needs are going to be met. This is what Jesus said. Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 to 21:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures here on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves can break in and steal them; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Now, you think it would be the other way round – where your heart is, that’s where you would put your treasure but it’s not that way. If we hoard all our wealth up for ourselves then that’s where our heart will ultimately be, wrapped up in ourselves. That’s why if we hang onto our money, we end up serving the false god of mammon – wealth – and as Jesus points out, in doing that we are misplacing our faith. We are putting our faith in something that just won’t deliver. More about that another time.

If on the one hand we invest in the Kingdom of God as He calls us so to do – as He moves our hearts in one direction or the other, towards this need or that one – then our hearts will end up resting firmly in God. Our trust will end up in Him for all His provision rather in our temporal wealth. We can only serve one or the other – God or wealth – you can’t serve them both. That’s precisely what Jesus said, either we will be a slave to the one or we will be a slave to the other. God knows that and that’s why He involves us financially in supporting His work, to give us the opportunity to have a change of heart.

And that always costs us something. Friend, let me say it again: God doesn’t need our money! Instead He wants our hearts. He wants all of us and He knows that involving us in sacrificial giving, that’s exactly what He will get. It’s a God thing! What someone gives, which Kingdom work or ministry that he or she supports and how much they give, and those things are entirely between that person and God. In your giving, it’s between you and God.

The point is simply this: God wants our hearts and He knows how bound up our hearts can be in our wallets.

 

A Heart Divided

Let me ask you: have you ever been on sporting team where there is an argument or disagreement or dissension? In Australia where I live, you sometimes see it within political parties. There’s backbiting or there’s arguing and instead of playing on the one team against the other team – which is how our system of government works – they end up playing against one another.

And here’s what happens: any team which is fighting amongst itself simply isn’t going to win, whether it’s a football game on a sporting field or an election to take government. Division, dissension, argument, disagreement – all that horrible, terrible stuff – tears a team apart. And when it’s torn apart, everyone has to focus on that division, first winning then as so often happens, bayoneting the wounded – as we used to say in the Army – and then hopefully healing. And the longer this division and dissension go on, the worse it gets.

Now, imagine if, instead of that happening amongst a team of people that this division is happening within you and me – within our hearts – that our hearts are torn between the one thing and the other; between doing this and doing that, believing this or believing that.

I don’t know if you have ever had that happen to you, but as a Christian I know that whenever I’m tempted, that is exactly what’s going on. I want to do one thing, I want to honour God but the Apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 7, I’m torn with following after my desires against God’s will. And that … that can’t go on!

Now, we have been chatting so far this week about this whole issue of God and money. Why? Because a lot of people are drowning in debt; a lot of people haven’t learned to use money as a servant, rather than allowing their desire for wealth to master them and control them and enslave them. Remember it’s not money itself here that is at fault but our love of money. First Timothy chapter 6, verse 10:

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And in their eagerness to be rich, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

And I know so many people who are living with a divided heart on this matter of money. It may well be that they are giving to God’s work – to the church and to the poor and needy, to this or to that, perhaps they are even tithing, giving ten percent of their income to God’s work – and yet they still have a divided heart over money. On the one hand, they want to serve God but ever with what they are giving, they know that they still have more than enough to meet every whim and every desire to build their wealth, to produce more wealth so they can have a bigger house. See, once you have money it becomes a whole bunch easier to make more money.

Or some people, some have managed to get themselves into so much debt that they simply can’t afford to support God’s work, to give money to the poor, to support their local church or the other things they feel God is really calling them to be involved in.

As someone involved in this ministry, Christianityworks, that produces these radio programmes – something we can actually only do with the support of faithful people who pray for us and give financially – see, I see this quite frequently; this is a common thing. “Aw, I’d love to support you but my business isn’t doing well”, or, “I’m unemployed”, or “I don’t have a lot of cash at the moment”. I had one man tell me that, and then take his rather large family off, not on just a holiday, but on a pretty expensive overseas holiday.

Now please, don’t get me wrong. The last thing I’m doing here is getting all bitter and twisted here about this phenomenon. My faith … my faith is in God! And even through some of the most financially dire situations over the years, He has always showed up; He has always provided for our needs, invariably, through His people.

What concerns me here though is the deception, “Aw, I don’t have enough money to support God’s work”. In my experience, it’s almost never about not having enough money, it’s about the priorities we have, which if we examine those priorities, would tell us a lot about the divided nature of our hearts.

I want to take you to meet a man called Cornelius. We meet him first in Acts chapter 10. He is the man whom God chooses first to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Remember up until this point, that God, therefore His Son was the God of the Jews. God had much, much bigger plans than that and the lynch pin here is Cornelius. Question is: why did God choose him and not someone else? Acts chapter 10, beginning at verse 1:

In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius.” He stared at the angel in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” The angel answered, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.”

Why did God chose Cornelius? Because he was a pray-er and a giver and both those things told God that this man’s heart was right. He was a man whom God would trust for the entry point for the Good News of Jesus into the Gentile world. What we do with our time and our money tells us an awful lot of what is going on in our hearts. Cornelius’ heart was sold out to God, completely and utterly and that ascended as a memorial before God. In other words, it got God’s attention and God noticed there was something going on here in this man’s heart.

The alternative is a divided heart. Have a listen to what Jesus says about that. Matthew chapter 12, verse 25. Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself can stand.”

Now, Jesus was saying that in a totally different context. Some people were accusing Him of being powered by the devil instead of by God, when He had cast a demon out and those words were His response. But the principle of what He is saying, a kingdom, a city, a house and let’s follow it right down, a heart divided against itself cannot stand.

Why are so many Christians struggling in their lives? Because they have a heart divided against itself. Flip flopping between God and mammon; God and wealth. Jesus said over and over again: you can’t do that. You can only serve the one or the other; you can’t be a slave to both.

The only way I learned to do that – to be set free from this desire for wealth and to serve God instead, on reflection, the only way that I think that any of us can learn – is to make decisions to be involved in supporting the various Kingdom works that God calls us to support, to the level that He calls us to; that He moves our hearts to and then to go and do that, even if it costs us the holiday; even if it costs us something else that we really want. To give not the loose change, the leftover stuff in our pockets but to give sacrificially.

Next week we are going to meet someone who did precisely that; someone who gave all she had. Friend, a house and a heart divided against itself cannot stand. Listen again: it cannot stand. As God challenges us about where we put our treasure – into His Kingdom or into our storehouses – what He is doing is He is asking for our hearts. And the thing that happens, as He has our hearts, we discover that they find a rest and peace and a safety and a security that we never thought was possible.

 

A Change of Heart

The mere fact that many of us want to chase after wealth – we’re drawn, we’re tempted to serve the god of mammon instead of the living God – demonstrates we’re human. See, it’s a natural tendency of our flesh to war against God and reject God. And every human heart desires security. And this place of struggle between holding on to all my money, devoting my life to making more, on the one hand and yet, being prepared to open our hearts and our wallets to the needs that God calls us to be part of meeting – is such an intense struggle for many people. Especially, let me say, for two classes of people: the very, very rich and the very, very poor.

The next week on the programme we are going to meet one of each of those and see how they responded to this challenge. As I mentioned earlier, for me as a wealthy businessman who became a Christian later in life, was this huge struggle to get to the point of tithing my income. The more you earned the bigger one tenth of it is.

Now, Jesus was human and Jesus had His struggles too. Not with money so much, as it turned out, but He was tempted by the devil. We read about that in Luke chapter 4 and elsewhere. But He had another struggle; another temptation; a much bigger one actually, much later in His ministry. It was a life and death struggle in the Garden called Gethsemane that demonstrated that this was not just the Son of God going to the cross but also the Son of man. This struggle shows us Jesus humanity. Come with me and listen – Matthew chapter 26, beginning at verse 36:

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here for a while, while I go over there and pray.” He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. Then he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.” And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.

Then he came to his disciples and (you know what?) he found them asleep, and he said to Peter, “Could you not stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again he went away for the second time and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink from it, your will be done.” Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, the same words.”

See, three times He asks for this great burden of having to die on the cross, to be taken away from Him and yet three times He yields His will, His very life to God, His Father. He is prepared to die that He may bring life to many. It’s this same Jesus who said in Luke chapter 9, verse 24:

For those who want to save their lives will lose them but those who lose their lives for my sake will save them.

And friend, that applies so much to our money. Those who cling onto it greedily, serve another master. Those who follow God’s call to give much of it away, even all of it if that’s what God demands of us (he does that sometimes, not always) those people demonstrate they are serving the one true God. And for many, this struggle is so intense because their faith is in their money; in their wealth; in their security, rather than God. They depend on wealth rather that this Carpenter on the cross.

And I have to tell you, I was there. I spent a lot of my time there, a lot of my early Christian walk there. I wanted to put my faith and my trust completely in my capacity to earn money. Let me tell you though friend, money is not secure. Money fails! And the only way to change, the only way to trust God instead of money is to shift our treasure “for where our treasure is, there our heart will also be.”

Our heart follows our treasure! It’s how I learned to overcome the struggle, truly, from being a wealthy, selfish businessman, hanging on to all my money, to being someone who now lives by faith in God on a daily basis. And as big a risk as that might seem up front, letting go of some of our wealth for Jesus sake; letting go of a substantial proportion of our wealth for Jesus sake – as scary as that seemed to me – now as I look back, I have a peace; I have a safety; I have a security in trusting in God that I never, ever, ever found when I was trying to trust in money.

It’s such an incredible paradox and it’s such a difficult step sometimes to take a significant amount of money – not lose change – a significant amount of money and sow that into the Kingdom of God, where He calls us. My heart followed my treasure, just as Jesus said. First I had to move my treasure, and what happened? My heart followed along behind it!

Financial Security. Now there’s something that we all want, don’t we? Question is: How to get it. The world tells us to put our faith in money. God … God has a different way. It’s not nearly as seductive as the world’s way – but that’s not the only difference. The real difference is that God’s way actually works.

 

Winners and Losers

Over the last couple of weeks we have been talking about money. Why? Because so many people had issues with money. Sometimes we don’t have enough; other times the desire for money and wealth and all that that brings can overwhelm us. So many of us are immersed in cultures that worship wealth: advertising that rampantly and without check promotes conspicuous consumption and governments keen to make their economies grow, who tacitly or explicitly, endorse excessive consumption.

All that leads to a malady that sees us becoming enslaved to the idea of wealth and success, many people labouring so hard; so excessively on this treadmill, that it’s killing us. Any of that sound vaguely familiar?

So, over the last few weeks we have been looking at that problem and how this love of and desire for money tears so many of us apart. On the one hand, we want to love God; we want to be generous and to do good in this world but on the other, many want to be wealthy and hang on to their wealth, so, becoming enslaved to it. They are like a dog with two masters.

Today we are going to have a look at the solution. Now, I come to this whole issue of money and materialism as one who has spent most of his life – at least the first thirty six years, before I met this Jesus somewhere along the dusty road of my life – as a rampant, extreme, committed, born again materialist. I wanted to be rich.

That’s where I came from. And perhaps you have heard me say it before, but as hard as I worked at that – and man, I worked hard and I was well on the way, you know – but as hard as I worked at that, it simply never, ever delivered the satisfaction and the contentment that I was looking for. It promised satisfaction; it promised contentment, it just never delivered.

Over the last decade and a half of walking each day with Jesus, far from perfectly some days, I have to say, but just walking with Him the best way I knew how, I’ve discovered a different way; another way of handling wealth and money and it’s the only way that I have been able to find that actually delivers. And that way goes back to a simple and yet radical and, to me, challenging, even repugnant principle of life that Jesus talked about. We touched on it briefly in the first programme of this series, “Money Matters – A Kingdom Perspective.” And that principle is this, Luke chapter 9, verse 24:

For those who want to save their lives will lose them, but those who lose their lives for my sake will save them.

Now, there was a much broader context within which He made that statement. The context was about winning and losing and we will look at that in a moment. But the principle here is this: it’s this paradox that by hanging onto our lives – and that includes our money – eventually we will lose everything but by letting go, we will save ourselves.

In other words, winning leads to losing but a deliberate choice to lose, leads to a win. I know it sounds a bit bizarre but the first part of that is something that I have already proven in my life. By trying to win; by trying to be wealthy; by serving the god of wealth, what I have discovered, beyond any reasonable doubt, is that it just doesn’t work.

Now, let’s look at the broader context of winning and losing that Jesus was talking about, because when we do that, all of a sudden it starts to make sense. Now, this comes at a time when Jesus had been wandering around, healing people, preaching with power and authority and relevance in a way that rang true for the people. Crowds, huge crowds are following Him. We are looking at this, beginning at Luke chapter 9, verse 18. So if you have a Bible, grab it and read this with me:

Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They answered, “John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Messiah of God.” He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, saying, “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

Then he said to them all, “If any of you want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”

So, His closest disciples had figured out who He was – the Messiah, the Son of God; God Himself in the flesh. And I don’t know about you but, at this point, if I’m one of the twelve I’m thinking, “Boy am I on a winner here? Son of God, WOO HOO!!” And then He launching into this whole suffering bit, that He’s going to have to go through and the suffering that they are going to go through themselves. This miracle Man, Jesus, as we know, ultimately gets Himself nailed to a cross. He becomes the ultimate loser so that you and I can become the ultimate winners.

That’s what happens to Him and that’s what He says has to happen to His disciples – you and me included – if we want to follow Him. By suffering and sacrificing, He was glorified. That’s the principle and you and I, we’re called to take up our cross daily and follow Him. Not to follow a worldly path of success. Does that mean we have to go round poor as church mice – all of us?

Well, now later in the programme, we are going to meet one person that Jesus encountered who was as poor as a church mouse and one who was wealthy, and we will see the contrast. But what it does mean – here’s the underlying principle – is that when we are prepared to lose our wealth for Jesus, that’s when we discover true wealth.

Friend, there are so many different ways of doing that. The choices we make on where we live and what we drive and how much our lifestyle will cost us. Will I have a high flying job that earns me lots of money but demands a hundred and twenty percent of my life? Or will I have a lesser paying job so that I can do some of the things in my family and my community that Jesus is calling me to do?

When it comes to supporting God’s work, will I throw my loose change into the hat or will I give sacrificially; will I give in a way that truly costs me something? That’s where the decisions are made; that’s where the rubber hits the road and that’s when we choose to lose (great phrase that) we choose to lose in the money department when we get into the business of giving through the cross.

In other words, giving sacrificially and that sort of giving is the sort that hurts. That’s where we discover the satisfaction and the contentment we have been looking for because then, all of a sudden, we gain mastery over our money. Instead of us worshipping wealth, now our wealth serves us – and not just us but God. And when we lay it down like that, our heart changes. As Jesus said in Luke chapter 12, verse 34:

For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.

 

The Widow Gives All

We live in a pretty conventional world where the more you have the more you are worth. Let’s say that you and I get together and form a company and that company needs some start-up capital. I can’t afford quite as much as you; let’s say you are able to come up with seventy percent of the capital and me, well, all I can do is come up with thirty percent. Because you are wealthy, the seventy percent isn’t too much of a drain on you, but I’m not as wealthy as you and coming up with my thirty percent meant that I had to scrape every spare penny out from under the wardrobe and go without a whole bunch of things.

That’s okay though, because I want to be part of this new venture, so the way it works if this: you come up with seventy percent of the capital so you are going to own seventy percent of the company. I came up with thirty percent of the capital so I am going to own thirty percent of the company.

Now, that’s not something that anyone is going to dispute – it’s fair, it’s pretty conventional wisdom – it’s just the way things are. Well, it is, until we enter God’s economy! And here’s how God truly got in my face over what I was doing with my money and what that said about what was going on in my heart.

The second teaching on this from Jesus I would like to share with you briefly right now. It’s about a widow who gave toward God’s work. Let’s have a look:

He looked up, (this was Jesus) He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put two small copper coins in. He said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.

That comes from Luke chapter 21.

It seems that the Lord is not so much concerned with how much we give but rather, with how much it costs us. He is concerned to see that His people don’t give so much out of their excess but they give sacrificially, because in so doing, it demonstrates the power of the work, of the Word and of the Spirit in their hearts.

And there’s a reason for that, because it’s the degree to which we are prepared to give in a way that costs us, which speaks to God of our hearts and where they are at. And this is the point … this is precisely the point where a whole lot of people become very touchy, very sensitive about some preacher talking about their faith and their money in the same breath; to facing how sensitive we are when it comes to the umbilical cord that runs between our hearts and our wallets.

Earlier we saw how Jesus said in Luke chapter 12, verse 34:

For where your treasure is there your heart will also be.

And Luke chapter 9, verse 24:

For those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake, will save it.

And that’s because the desire of God’s heart is that we worship Him first and foremost in our hearts, before any other god, before the god of money and of wealth, before the god of self. Consider this widow, obviously God had moved her to give all that she had to give. Now, do I think we should do that largely? No! Do I think that we should do that to support some preacher’s jet-setting lifestyle or personal jet? No!

But every now and then God will touch us with a need somewhere in the world – someone in desperate need; a missionary or a ministry that’s doing God’s work at home or abroad and have a real need to be able to fund that; a friend whose car is going to be repossessed because he is unemployed and can’t meet the payment – whatever it may be, the list is truly endless.

But God lays this one particular need on our hearts and here’s what we do: whether we realize it or not, we weigh the cost. “Well, yea, I could give a hundred dollars to that mission, they really do need it but I don’t know, I was planning to go out for dinner, or I was planning to buy myself a new pair of shoes or … I’m not sure. If I give that will I have enough left over to buy the things I really want to buy, to do the things I really want to do?”

Friend, that is precisely what we do. Let me take you back to the widow. Let just let her story ring true in our hearts. Not my words but God’s:

He looked up and he saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; but he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, “Truly I tell you this poor widow has put more in than all of them for all of them have contributed out of their abundance but she out of her poverty, has put in all she had to live on.

She gave to God not just the money she was going to use for discretionary expenditure, she gave her essential money – the money to live off – to God. And what did Jesus say, she was silly to do that, she was ill advised, she should have been more prudent? No, He praised her. And do you think for one moment this God would have let her go without? Do you think for one moment that He would have left her destitute after this great sacrifice of faith that she made?

See, it wasn’t just the sacrifice, it was the faith that she showed. Maybe she was the one who had heard Jesus say in Matthew chapter 6:

I tell you, don’t worry about your life – about what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body or what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you worth more than them? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothing? Look at the lilies of the field how they grow – they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you not even Solomon in all his glory, was clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith?

Therefore, don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ’What will we wear?’ For it is the gentiles who strive for all these things and indeed, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.

Maybe she was the one who had heard Jesus speak those words and maybe … just maybe, she had decided to believe Him. Not just in her head, not just in her heart but with her life.

 

Walking Away from Tyranny

Okay, we have just met a widow; a nobody who gave all she had to live on to God’s work. It’s powerful stuff! Here was a woman whose faith in Jesus had given her mastery over her purse. As little as she had, she was able to give it in faith. And I know, beyond any shadow of any doubt, that this humble, nameless, poor little nobody amongst men, was an absolute giant in the Kingdom of God.

But now let’s meet someone else; a man at completely at the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum. If you have a Bible grab it and turn to Matthew chapter 19, beginning at verse 16:

Then someone came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep his commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honour your father and mother; also, you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” The young man said to him, “I have kept all these; what do I lack?”

Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and they said, “Then who can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

See, here’s this rather wealthy young man who obviously remains troubled despite the fact that he appears to be following all the commandments of the law, yet, for some reason, he still seems to be troubled. This law abiding believer; doing all the right things apparently, is so troubled he feels the need to ask Jesus what to do to gain eternal life, so Jesus gets him to tick off some of the Ten Commandments. All okay there – tick, tick, tick, – but then Jesus puts His finger right on that sensitive bit of flesh that I was talking of earlier; that flesh that runs from our hearts to our wallets.

Jesus knows that there is one commandment this young man isn’t keeping. It’s the one that Jesus doesn’t even mention in His list because it’s the first one; the most important one of all and the very one that his young man is breaking. Exodus chapter 21, verses 2 and 3:

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt; out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.

The problem wasn’t that this young man had money, lots of people had money. Solomon had money, David had money – they were never told to give it all away. In fact, Solomon was one of the richest men who ever lived on this earth a thousand years or so before Jesus, and God never said to Solomon, “Hey, Sol, listen, ah, all that money you’ve amassed, it is somehow sinful and you shouldn’t have any of it, give it away.” Did God say that to Solomon? No! So why does He say it to this young man, on that day? Why now, why this guy? Because the love of money – see, that’s the key – not the money itself, but this man’s love of money was causing him to break the first commandment.

Now, I know, I can hear some cynical person saying, “Great, well that’s the Old Testament, the first commandment. We are not under the Old Testament law any more. No problemo!” And to that person I would say, “Have a listen to what Jesus said in the New Testament when He was asked what was the most important commandment of all.” Luke chapter 10, verse 27:

Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbour as yourself.

Friend, the widow that we met earlier, although she was the one who, despite being at the bottom of the social scale, despite not being one of the beautiful people who gets invited to the social soirees, she was the one who had the mastery of the god of wealth, whilst this rich young man who was one of the beautiful people, simply didn’t.Remember the Scripture that we looked at last week, First Timothy chapter 6, verse 10:

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and in their eagerness to be rich, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

‘For the love of money’ not money itself – it’s the love of money. That’s why I feel so sorry for this young man. I ache for him because he missed out in the end.

I have had some angry and vitriolic outburst from people when I have talked about this – outbursts that spring from that tender flesh that connects their hearts to their wallets. “How dare you tell me I have to give money away! How dare you?” Well, it’s not me, it’s Jesus because He wants our hearts; He wants all of us; He wants us loving and honouring and serving the God of heaven before all other things – “that we would have no gods before him.”

And look at how Jesus interprets this event for His disciples; look at what He says about the reward that comes from laying our wealth down at God’s feet. Straight after this sad young man wanders off Peter the Apostle has something to say. Peter says:

Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

The reward for those who sacrifice their lives, including their wealth for God, is a hundredfold return – not just double, not just triple, not just quadruple – a hundredfold. The reward is eternal; the reward is inconceivable. Those who take their wealth to make themselves first today, will ultimately be last and those like the widow, who are prepared to be last, they will be first.

Friend, this is the Word of God. It is better to be the widow on this earth who gave her all than to be the sad, young man who lost his life at the end. See, it strikes me that there is a difference between a here-and-now mentality and an eternal perspective. Everything that you and I have – every asset, every possession, every car or house or trinket or toy – not one of those things will pass with us from this life into the life eternal that lies beyond this grave.

And what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his life (spends an eternity without God).

My friend, what we do with our money says everything about who is first in our hearts. That’s the point here!

Many a man, many a woman has a heart that’s divided – torn between wealth and God. It’s deep, it’s devastating. We don’t think too much about it, let alone talk about it.  But it’s there.  And it hurts.  How do we deal with that?  How do we make a change for the good?

 

How much Should I Give?

Over these last few weeks we have been chatting about money matters. Trying, I guess, to take a Kingdom view; a Kingdom of God perspective on this whole issue of money. God talks so much in His Word about money and the influence it has over us – the fact that it can drag it away from Him as we chase so hard after the riches of this world. First Timothy chapter 6, verse 10, says that:

The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from their faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

We are so eager in our love of money, at least we can be, that we wander away from our faith in God, little by little, and before we know it, we have pierced ourselves with many, many pains.

I was in a lift, an elevator in a large shopping centre, the other day and stood next to a young woman with a young child in a pram and she had cut marks all down her arms – self mutilation; cutting that had left scars. Horrible! And you wonder, “Why does she do that?” It’s the same with the love of money, we pierce ourselves with many pains, it leaves scars.

And you have to ask yourself, ‘Why do we do that?’ Because it’s the most natural thing in the world for a person to do, to chase after wealth. The problem is it only brings pain. And what we are seeing over these last few weeks together is that God offers us a solution, a very simple solution, to give into His work – generously, sacrificially. That’s what sets us free from the pain, the devastating impact of the love of money, which is the root of all kinds of evil.

One of the things that people often ask me is, “How much should I give? If I indeed need to let God heal me of this malady for my giving, how much should I give?” The Old Testament talks about tithing – should I give a tithe; a tenth of my income? Will that do? It that the answer; is that the formula?’ Funny how we are all looking for a formula isn’t it? “I’ll set up a direct debit of ten percent to my church and then I’ll be free.”

Tithing comes from the Old Testament Law; the Torah. God’s people in the Old Testament were commanded to give ten percent. It was a legal requirement for them, much as paying taxes is a legal requirement for you and for me. This finds its roots way back in Genesis chapter 14, verse 20, when Abraham gives thanks to the Lord. It works its way into the Law so that the Levites can be ministers to God’s people to pay, in effect for their ministry.

And we see quite often how God uses the tithe to bring His people back to Himself through obedience. That oft quoted passage on tithing – you may have heard it, in Malachi chapter 3 – is set in the context of God’s people having wandered away from Him, realised that and asks Him for a path back and He gives it to them through this one simple act. Read it for yourself. Malachi chapter 3, verses 7 to 12, towards the end of the Old Testament. Have a listen:

Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. “Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. But you say, “How shall we return?” Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, “How are we robbing you?” In your tithes and offerings! You are accursed with a curse, for you are robbing me—the whole nation of you! Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.

Do you see how, God, through this one command in the Law is giving them a solution to their wandering off from Him? I wonder if it isn’t a solution for someone today. But the tithe, the giving of one tenth is no longer a legal requirement. People who believe in Jesus are Christians and they are no longer under the law of the Old Testament; we are under the law of grace. We walk according to the Spirit of God. Indeed, as the Apostle Paul, in Romans chapter 8, verse 3, says:

… the reason is that God, by sending His Son, has done what the law weakened by the flesh couldn’t do. He’s dealt with our sin.

Do I think tithing is a good idea? I think it’s a great idea, a brilliant idea and I would encourage anyone who has strayed away from God to return to Him and through this one simple principle, make a sacrifice to God. The good thing about one tenth is that it typically represents a fair chunk of our discretionary expenditure. We all have bills, we have to have somewhere to live and rent, mortgage and food and clothing and all those things – they consume, for most of us, most of our income. What’s left is the money that we use for discretionary expenditure. Giving a tenth of our household income to God restricts our discretionary expenditure. It’s a significant sacrifice and it’s changed many a heart. Remember that’s what God after all, wants – our hearts. He knows that our hearts are linked to our wallets and that’s why He calls for this sacrifice.

But do I think that tithing is the answer is that what God is looking for? No! James L. Kraft, the founder of the Kraft Phoenix Cheese Corporation, still a household name in many parts of the world today, was well known as a tither. When asked whether he believed in tithing he said, ‘No, although I guess it’s not a bad place to start.”

If someone is looking to honour God, to invest their treasurer in heaven rather than here on earth, as Jesus taught, how much should they give? Well, the answer I think lies in Second Corinthians chapter 8. Have a listen. Paul is asking the Corinthians to contribute to his ministry. It’s a fundraising letter, if you will, at least, this chapter is:

We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; (Remember he is writing to the Corinthians here. He is talking about the Macedonian church. He says about them,) for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints—and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us, so that we might urge Titus that, as he had already made a beginning, so he should also complete this generous undertaking among you.

Now as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you — so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.”

So, two things: the first is that the Macedonians themselves were struggling terribly. In those days that meant not having enough food to eat. But even though they themselves were going through an ordeal of affliction and extreme poverty, they were generous. They gave beyond their means, to God’s work, through Paul. In fact, they begged him for the privilege of giving. Imagine what this world would look like if we did the same.

And so Paul springboards off that, if you will, writing to the Corinthians and to you and to me to do the same as a test of the genuineness of our love for God. Man, what a challenge! Giving sometimes, as we are moved in our hearts by God, beyond our means – like that widow that Jesus spoke of, who gave all she had to live on. You can read about that in Luke chapter 21.

And God wants our hearts and you and I so often, we put our faith in stuff. Our security is in stuff, in money, in a false god. How much should we give? Everything! In other words, put all our assets at God’s disposal, all that we are, all that we have, at His feet. Be prepared to be ‘all in’ and to go all the way. That’s what the Bible says! Does God demand that we should all be poor? No! But He wants us to lay everything at His feet because we only have what He has already given us.

And I know it’s going to make some people squirm but it’s only because these same people trust in the things of this world and not in their God. We are going to talk a bit more about that next.

 

How Should I Give

Now we have just had a brief look at one of the most radically challenging Scriptures that I know of, something that the Apostle Paul wrote about “giving”. So I would like to go a bit deeper into it right now because it’s life changing if we take God’s Word to heart. It strikes at the very core of our faith, particularly for those of us who live in parts of the world where conspicuous consumption and consumerism are the religion of the day.

Paul is writing this fund raising letter to his friends in Corinth to motivate them to give and he is telling the Corinthians about the Macedonian church. Let’s have another look at it.

We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints—and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us, so that we might urge Titus that, as he had already made a beginning, so he should also complete this generous undertaking among you.

Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

What an amazing passage of Scripture! The executive summary: basically be “all in” when it comes to giving to God’s work the way Jesus was “all in”. It cost Him His life! That’s great but what does that mean and how do you and I do that and yet still keep a roof over our heads and food in our bellies? That’s what we are going to be talking about together right now.

I mentioned last week that sometimes I receive vitriolic letters from people here in Australia – not often, just occasionally – when they have received a so called “fundraising” letter from our ministry, as though that is any different to a church taking up an offering on Sunday morning. But right here in the Bible we have Paul the Apostle writing a fund-raising letter. And he is asking – asking is the wrong word – he’s imploring them to give generously and eagerly, like the Macedonians who had begged to be able to give generously to God’s work.

It’s an“all in” strategy for Kingdom giving. And the power of this approach by the Macedonians is that it demonstrates their love for God is genuine. They gave out of their affliction; they gave out of the poverty; they are prepared to give beyond their means when God moves them in their hearts to give, and then to put their trust in God to provide for their needs.

See, our approach quite often is totally the opposite. We give out of what we have left over. Nothing left over, huh, nothing to give! “Oh, we have to make sure there is enough left for a rainy day of course!” And yet these Macedonians are free from worrying about money because they serve the living God; the Creator of the universe; the One who knows all their needs and who has promised to provide for them rather than serving the god of wealth and of money; a false god; a tin pot god that coughs and splutters when there’s a famine, or when we lose our jobs or when we live in poverty, as many of the people joining us today round the world do; or when the stock market stumbles.

But in practice, what does that mean to be “all in”? I mean, how can we be practical about this? The first thing for me is taking Jesus at His absolute word when He talks about God’s provision. We are going to read those words now. They require very little explanation – they’re plain, they’re simple, they’re straightforward and as you hear them, ask yourself this question: do I actually believe Jesus with my life on this? Am I actually living my life as though what He is saying is true? Jesus – Matthew chapter 6, verse 19:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal. But instead, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will also be. No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they don’t sow, they don’t reap, they don’t gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth so much more than them?

And can you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothing? I mean, look at the lilies of the field, how they grow; they don’t toil, they don’t spin, and I’ve got to tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of them. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What am I going to eat?’ or ‘What am I going to drink?’ or ‘What am I going to wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will bring enough worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

So, let me ask you, are we living our lives as though those words are true? I’m not just asking you, I’m asking me! If we are, we are serving God, if we’re not, then we are not serving God – we are serving mammon; a word which means basically, “the false god of wealth”. And if we do believe that, how do we put it into action? Is it by some rule or formula? No! That’s not what the Macedonians were doing and that’s not what Paul was asking the Corinthians to do. Have another listen:

… we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. I’m not saying this to you as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

Is it a rule? Is it a command? No, it’s a test. Paul is testing their hearts. In fact, through Paul, God is testing their hearts. You may remember a couple of weeks ago we looked at the very first fund-raiser in the Bible. God sending Moses to God’s people to raise support for the tabernacle, a place where God’s presence would dwell amongst Israel, the forerunner of the temple. Exodus chapter 25, verse 1:

The Lord said to Moses: Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give – you shall receive the offering for me.

Do you see? It’s a matter of the heart – God wants our hearts. And when He moves us to give, the test is whether we will give what He asks, no matter what it costs. Let me say that again: the test is that we will give what He asks, no matter what it will cost.

For me, this is what it means. I’m blessed by God. I live in a safe, comfortable house but I’m not prepared to have a safe, comfortable life. Many times in ministry, there hasn’t been enough to go around; many times the house has been on the line and for me, my God comes before my house. Is that irresponsible? No, I don’t think so. The house could burn down tomorrow. There could be a tsunami or an earthquake or a fire or even a war. The things, the stuff, the money, the possessions – that’s not where I get my security.

I have decided, as unnerving as it is some days, as counter intuitive and apparently stupid as it may appear to others, to be ‘all in’ in the Kingdom of God. When I gave my life to Jesus, I prayed a simple prayer; the words of which I will now forget. I believe it’s a prayer the Holy Spirit birthed in me. I prayed: Lord everything I am and everything I have, every hope and every dream, I give to You. Of course, I haven’t always done that perfectly but it remains my prayer today. All in!

Am I telling you that to impress you? No, I am nothing special. The point is this, that like James L. Kraft, the founder of the Kraft Foods Empire I can say this: that this ‘all in’ Kingdom investment is the only investment I have ever made that has consistently, without fail, paid dividends. All kinds of dividends. It’s what God had planned – seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and then letting all these other things follow along behind. All in!

 

Financial Security

As you and I ponder this brutally direct passage in Second Corinthians chapter 8 about the way the Macedonians gave missionally to the spreading of the Gospel. They gave so sacrificially out of their poverty, they considered it such a privilege to be a part of God’s plan in the world.

As we contemplate that I would like to bring another Scripture to the table. It’s a Scripture about Scriptures; a Bible verse about all the other Bible verses. Have a listen, Hebrews chapter 4:

Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides the soul from the spirit, the joints from the marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of our hearts. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

See, God’s Word indeed judges the thoughts and the intentions of our hearts. He knows how the love of money grips us; He knows our Achilles Heel, our specific weakness; the places where the devil can tempt us. He knows how our hearts are divided – not just in some judicial way but through His experience. Jesus too was tempted in the same way:

We have a great High Priest who passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold fast to our confession for we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses but we have one who in every respect, has been tested as we are and yet was without sin.

Jesus knows! Jesus was tempted by the devil. When He came out of the wilderness having fasted for forty days and forty nights what was one of the things that the devil tempted Him with? He led Him up and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and the devil said to Jesus,

To you I will give their glory and all this authority for it’s been given over to me and I’ll give it to anyone that I please. If you will worship me it will all be yours. And Jesus answered, “It is written, “Worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.

It’s because Jesus Himself was tempted in the same way – with all the riches of the kingdoms of the world – it is for this reason that He understands.

Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.

In just a moment, that exactly what we are going to do. We are going to go and approach the throne of grace with boldness, not in our own right but through Jesus Christ who died to pay for our sin.

But before we do, a warning! When we pray this prayer; as we lay all that we are and all that we have at His feet, make no mistake, God will test our hearts. He won’t wait long. A need will arise somewhere; an opportunity will arise as it did for the Macedonians and the Corinthians, to contribute, to give sacrificially to the Kingdom of God and God’s Kingdom agenda; to be part of transforming peoples’ lives with love and grace and mercy and power of the Good News about Jesus Christ.

This is not some theory lesson alone, God is into the practical teaching of discipling us. He will come and lay something on our hearts; He will test our hearts just as He tested the hearts of the Corinthians through the Apostle Paul. It can be so hard to lay down our wealth at God’s feet and we do that through sacrificial giving.

That’s how God calls us to give but the prize of that sacrifice … the prize is freedom from the tyranny of money.

Father,
I pray for each one of us. Money impacts all of us. We all want things and experiences in our lives and thank You that You have made this world for us to enjoy, for us to experience. But we need to be honest here with You Lord, this whole thing of money, well, sometimes it plunders our hearts, sometimes we want to chase after wealth instead of following hard after Jesus. Lord, we come to You, we confess that we are utterly powerless to do anything about it except to present ourselves to You – all that we have and all that we are – and ask that Your Spirit would invade our hearts. Change our hearts, Oh God. Set us free to lay down our desire for wealth and replace it with a passion for You. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.