Time/Money (March 9. 2008)
Time/Money M5 March 9 2008
Text: Matthew 6: 19-24
Title: The Currency of Heaven
As a 5 or 6 year old child in England, I remember fantasizing about finding an old, wrinkled treasure map (use prop) left by pirates that would lead me to a chest buried somewhere, filled with gold coins, diamonds, rubies and sapphires.
Then, when I was a little bit older, maybe around ten or so, according to my grandmother, I always asked her “How can I be rich when I grow up?” “How can I be rich?” I guess, as a boy of saw my grandmother, who was very generous, as also being wealthy.
Then, as a teenager, I was trying to figure out how I could make the most amount of money with the least amount of education. “Dealing drugs?” Perhaps.
I’m sure I was more of materialistic than most of you were as children, but the desire to have wealth is a primal one.
When we give our lives to Christ what happens to that desire?
Is the desire for wealth obliterated? I think it be more accurate to say that they were re-purposed…
If you have your Bibles with you, please turn to Matthew 6: 19.
This text is part of Jesus’ famous sermon on the mount.
Treasures in Heaven
19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, [c] your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, [d] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
When Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,” in case you are wondering, he is not saying that we shouldn’t have bank accounts. Paul a writer of the Bible tells us that it is natural for parents to save for their children (2 Cor.. The Book of Proverbs, the writer praises the industry of the ant for saving for the future.
Pray for Audrey Orton
Jesus is not so much condemning people for saving money or investing it, he is however warning people about putting their security in earthly investments.
Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” In Jesus’ day people could build wealth by hoarding clothes because clothes were a kind of currency of the way. People like Versace, the Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, my fashion conscious younger sister would have been especially wealthy if they had lived in the first century. People could also become wealthy if they were able to store grain in barns. If a famine hit and the grain prices soared, a person could become fabulously rich. A third way a person could get rich in the ancient world was by exchanging their assets for gold. Jesus pointed out that none of these investments were really secure. Your garment, after all, could be lunch for a moth; grain could be eaten by mice or rats, or could just rot; thieves could steal your gold.
A couple of thousand years later, wealth is still not secure. People were stunned recently here in Canada when CIBC, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and some investors tied to them--lost billions of dollars on investments that were regarded as guaranteed Triple A-rated investments (CHECK). The markets have been very shaky around the world in this year. Analysts are telling us that the U.S. is headed for a recession this year. That, of course, will affect us here in Canada. As we know because the global economy is now integrated, even a recession in a small country on the other side of the world can trigger economic downtown right here in Canada.
When Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal,” he is not preaching “doom and gloom” he is simply warning us against putting our security in earthly investments that are so insecure. But “Jesus doesn’t just tell us where not to invest, he also gives us the best investment advice ever—we are to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven.”
Jesus does not condemn our ambition. He simply elevates it. Jesus invites us to make an investment that will pay off forever. The fact is that even if our earthly investments do not crash, there will come a time when our earthly investments will be taken from us through death, and a day will come when all of our money and earthly goods will be worth nothing.
On January 1, 2002, 12 European countries switched from their existing currencies to the new currency, the Euro. After a grace period of a couple of months, all the currencies in these countries would become useless. According to the Chicago Tribune, two men in Berlin planned to fill an empty swimming pool with 45 million dollars worth of Deutschmarks and invited people to dive in. The Austrians planned to turn their shillings into 560 tons of compost. There will come a day when all of our money will be no more valuable than compost.
Jesus here, in Matthew 6, is telling us that we cannot rely on our earthly wealth that will not last and that we can’t take with us to the next life.
There was a man who worked all his life and saved as much as he could. He loved money more than anything.
Just before he died, he said to his wife, "When I die, I want you to take all my money and put it in the casket with me. I want to take my money to the afterlife with me." His wife promised she would.
At his funeral, just before the undertakers closed the casket, his wife put a box in the casket. The undertakers shut the casket and rolled it away.
The wife's friend said, " I know you weren't foolish enough to put all that money in there with that man."
She said, "I can't lie. I promised him I would put that money in the casket with him."
"You mean to tell me you put that money in the casket with him?" her friend asked.
"I sure did," said the wife. "I wrote him a check."
We can’t take it with us, but by investing in the things of God we can send it on ahead.
Martin Luther, the great reformer, said, “Everything I have kept I have lost, but all that I have given to God I still possess.” We can’t take it with us, but we can send it on ahead.
As Augustine we can exchange our earthly money for the currency of heaven.
Some of you, who are not familiar perhaps with this teaching of the Bible, may ask, “What do you mean by sending it on ahead?” The Bible clearly teaches that there will be a life to come after death. It is not simply wishful thinking, but the Bible clearly teaches it. The Bible also teaches (though people are sometimes embarrassed to talk about this) that there will be rewards in the life to come for those who have been faithful to God here on earth... The Bible teaches that many people, who have been considered first in this life because they had great wealth and hoarded it, will be last in the world to come. And many who are considered last in this world, because they didn’t have much by worldly standards and give what little they had to other people, will be first in the world to come.
What will these rewards look like in the world to come? As Randy Alcorn points out in his booklet the Treasure Principle Scriptures tell us the rewards of God include power (and the opportunity to govern cities). “Possessions,” and “ Pleasures”. And Jesus in Matthew 19:29 actually promised that those who sacrifice for him on earth for him will receive over a hundred times as much in heaven (Matthew 19:29). That’s a 10,000% investment return!
Some people say, “Well, it is selfish if you want to store up rewards for yourself in the next life.” But Jesus here in Matthew 6 commands us to do it. Storing up treasure in heaven is not a zero sum equation; your gaining treasure in heaven does not mean someone else will miss out.
Serve the living God to put it crassly ultimately serves our self interest. Perhaps not in the short-term--short-term, we may suffer considerably for serving Christ, but in the long-term it is always in our interest to serve God. It’s not necessarily wrong to be blessed for doing what is right and what we were made to do. As a pastor named John Piper says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”
Jesus says, “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” As I said two weeks ago, “Jesus here teaches that our heart will follow our treasure. He didn’t say our treasure will follow our heart.” I talked about how we know this by experience, when we buy an i-pod or a snowboard, a bike, a car or a condo, that when we put our treasure in these things, part of our heart gets attached. It is not necessarily wrong to buy any of these things, but it just gets attached. It is also true that when we invest in the things of God, when we tithe to the work of God through the church, when we invest in a para-church organization like World Vision or World Relief, that works to bring aid and opportunities for underprivileged children in the developing world, when we send money as we recently did to China through International China Concern (ICC) who are at great risk because of the severe winter, to Kenya to bring aid, as we make a long term investment in Cambodia, part of our heart goes to what God is doing in these places.
If you want a heart for God, a heart for eternity, the heart for things that will truly last, then invest in God, invest in the work of God, and your heart will follow.
Sometimes I pray, “God, teach me to care and not to care. Teach me to care, and not to care.” I want to care about things that will last forever, and I don’t want to care about things that are fleeting. If you were to come to our house, trip and fall into a vase and it were to smash, I want to be a person who doesn’t care very much about that because that vase is not something that will “last anyway.” I pray teach me to care and not to care. Teach me to be passionate and dispassionate. If you want to become a person who doesn’t care, in the best sense of that word, if you want to become a person who doesn’t become attached to things that are fleeting, that are passing, transient and temporal, invest your treasure in God, in things that will last forever, and your heart will follow.
Investing in heaven not only benefits us personally, but it also enables us to make a huge difference in the lives of people around the world. Randy Alcorn in this book Treasure Principle (hold up) says, “Giving is a giant lever positioned on the fulcrum of this world, allowing us to move mountains in the next world. Because we give, eternity will be different for others and for us.” (Powerpomt)
John and Sylvia Ronsvale have estimated that, if Christians in North America would faithfully tithe their income (which means responds to God’s call on every follower of Christ to give at least 10% of their income to the work of God), there would be approximately an additional hundred billion dollars available to help meet needs around the world. That extra hundred billion could meet the most essential human needs in the globe such as projects for clean water and sanitation, pre-natal and infant maternal care, basic education immunization, and very much-needed economic development to impoverished communities around the world.
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals which range from halving extreme poverty and providing universal primary education by 2015 are achievable goals. Governments have pledged money toward these lofty, millennium development goals, but, as we all know, governments around the world have a habit of pledging money, but then not following through on that pledge money.
Not only Christians who happen to be stars like Bono, but ordinary people like us should call on our governments to support movements like the Millennium Development goals and other efforts to alleviate poverty around the world.
We should also encourage ourselves to be faithful in giving to the work of God. I think that each Christian should walk in a close relationship with one or two other Christians, at least, and we should ask each other how we are doing in our walk with God, including how we are doing in our giving (I’m delighted we’re this series is sparking a conversation about both Sabbath and money). Kevin Miller talks about how when his dad was 60 years old, he gave his life over to Christ. He began to read the Bible for the first time on his life and he began to tithe and began to give his money generously. Kevin’s dad told him that it has been a great adventure. Kevin said, “My dad suffered a heart attack at age 70 and five days later he died. At the funeral home they laid him in a casket with his navy blazer and tie.” Kevin said, “At the funeral a woman I had never seen came up to me and said, ‘You don’t know me, but I was in a bad marriage and my husband was beating me. But I needed to get out to save my life. I didn’t know what I would do to support myself. Your dad paid for me to go to junior college and get the degree so I could become a dental hygienist. He paid for the whole thing and no one else knew about it. Now I have a job and I am making it. Your dad literally saved my life.’” Kevin says, “God helped free his dad from a love of money. Because of that, among other things, the woman now knows every day when she cleans people teeth that it is a miracle that she is alive, and she thanks God.”
One day in the life to come that woman will thank Kevin’s father. As we give, we can unleash blessings that will last forever in the lives of people in this world, some of whom we will not meet until the world to come.
In closing, I want to just take a moment to address some different groups here because we are diverse here at this church, not only in race, but also in age.
I want to speak to those of you here who are students. Some of you are at UBC, some at Regent, some at other schools. As I said a couple of weeks ago, I would urge you to begin to follow God’s call for you to tithe now as students when you are not making a lot of money. Tithing is setting aside the first tenth of your income to the work of God.
A student from UBC approached me and said, “I make no money. What would my tithe be? 10% of nothing is nothing.” If you are not working, don’t sweat it. But as you income perhaps through a gift, giving an offering. Use your time and talent to invest in to invest in the work of God.
But if you are working part-time, begin to tithe now. One day you will be making a 5-figure income, some 6, and a few of you perhaps 7 or figure incomes. If you don’t tithe now, you certainly won’t tithe then. Tithing will not only set your heart in the right direction, but will unleash powerful blessings through you in the world. Begin to set God-honoring habits while you are young.
And I want to say to those of you who are still considering what career path to choose, don’t choose a career path just because it is going to generate a lot of money for you. When I was an undergrad, I began as a business economics major. Most of the people in my graduating class were business economics majors. I went to university in the late 1980s when the stock market was very robust. Many of my classmates aspired to become investment bankers, stock brokers on Wall Street.
A very devoted Christian professor of mine, named Lyle Dorset, challenged me and my classmates by asking us, “How many more investment bankers does America need?” (By the way, Canada and America need investment bankers and that’s your call, please don’t feel judged at all. But the late 1980s was a very heady time where you make a lot of money on Wall Street.) Lyle challenged us to consider using our gifts in business economics to help bring economic health to places like Cabrina Green which was then considered one of the poorest and most dangerous sections of urban Chicago.
We could go to some places in Africa or in Latin America to use our gifts in economics and business to these places. Lyle Dorset, who became a good friend of mine, told me in private that sometimes he would get irate calls from parents who would say, “I am not spending 60,000 dollars so my kid can work in some kind of slum.” By using this example, I am not saying that all of you need to work with the very poor, but I am saying to you don’t choose your career path because of a dollar figure. Choose your career path because you feel that that would be the best way you could use your gifts to make a difference in the world. If it happens to be very high pay, don’t feel guilty about it, but use that income stream, in turn, to bring blessing, a blessing to people that will last forever.
Let those who are single—young or old. Singleness provides you with a great gift… you have freedom to give significant amounts of your money and time to the work of God that will last forever.
As my friend Catherine who for the longest wanted to be single and married to Christ says as single person every child can be your child.
I want to speak to you who are in your careers and those of you are considering getting married and perhaps beginning a family one day. I want to say you are thinking about getting married or are married, don’t idolize your spouse, even if they are amazing and you sometimes tempted to sing “how great thou art”. Put God first, your partner second and that will be the best gift that you can give to your partner. If you put God first, you love your partner out of love for God.
If you become parents one day, the order is God first, spouse second, children third. I know it’s not quite that simple, but if you get that order mixed up you can create all kinds of problems. The best thing a couple can do for each other is to put God first, as I just said. And the best thing a couple can do for their kids is to love each other at a higher priority level than their own kids. If you start loving your kids more than your marriage partner, it’s obviously not good for your partner and not good for your kids—it’s wierd.
This order also ought to be reflected in our giving and in our investments. In our culture we tend to emphasize children, and that is in most a very good thing, but we can over-emphasize children and make them idols by pouring all our resources into them.
When I was working in Tokyo, I remember my dad came to visit me. One night we had a very personal conversation and he talked about he regretted the fact that he wouldn’t be able to leave x amount of dollars for us 5 kids. (He actually named the dollar amount.) My dad began his career in international business, but then as a young man he switched over to journalism, working first for the BBC and then CBC as a broadcaster and producer. My dad ended up, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, working for the CBC (which is quasi-government). So we are talking modest income, single income. That was his “call” more business.
I remember saying to my dad, “It doesn’t matter. I don’t think any of your 5 kids are going to need money in the future.” I don’t know if I said this at the time, but I know that I reflected on it, that my dad and my mom have given me and my 4 siblings something far more important than a financial windfall—they have given us an example of a mom and dad who put God first…who gave generously to the work of God…who gave generously to other people. That’s a far more important legacy than money.
For those of you who are parents, and when you become parents, put God first in your giving. Give generously to the work of God. Love your spouse and those will be great legacies that you will be passing on to your children.
Now, I will speak to those of you who are older. I guess in our church that might be anyone past 40 and above. The others can listen in.
I want you to crush, obliterate, forsake forever the typical North American ideal of a dream retirement where you buy a home in Florida or Arizona and you spend all of your days golfing, playing tennis, lawn bowling. I want you to follow the example of someone like Ken Nixon in our congregation who recently celebrated his 80th birthday.
He has been a big blessing to me personally and to this community. To honour him on his 80th birthday, our staff had lunch with him and Ken was sharing how he didn’t want to spend his retirement years just collecting shells on a beach, but serving God. He referenced a message I gave some years ago in which I cited a story about a couple that originated in Reader’s Digest as having taken their early retirement in their 50s and are now living in Punta Gorda, Florida where they spent all their time cruising on their 30-foot boat, playing softball and collecting shells.
I said in that message, “When you come to the end of your life--your one and only life on earth-- and God asks you to give an account for your life, and specifically those retirement years when perhaps when you had the most freedom and the most disposable income, the house all paid off, etc. I said you don’t want to get to that day and stand before your Creator, sort of hesitating, pausing and saying. ‘Lord, you want to see my shells?’”
Use your retirement years to serve the living God, to make a difference in the world. It doesn’t mean you can’t take a vacation once in a while in a warm place as an older person. It would probably be good for your health, but don’t spend the last decades of your life selfishly spending all your time—playing softball, sailing, and collecting shells. Leverage your life as Ken Nixon is doing--and many retired people in our congregation are doing--to make a difference in eternity.
Living not for the dot of temporary existence, but for the line (Powerpoint image) –a line of eternity—
Pastor John Piper in his book Don’t Waste Your Life writes…
The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on into eternity, you don't need to have a high IQ. You don't have to have good looks or riches or come from a fine family or a fine school. Instead you have to know a few great, majestic, glorious things… and be set on fire by them.
One of those great glorious truths that can set us ablaze is that we can invest our lives in way that will echo in eternity…
Prayer:
BENEDICTION:
19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
As you leave this place, know that there will be a cost involved in investing in heaven. But as Jim Elliott once said, “Become people who love God from the very depth of your and who know she is no fool who gives up what she cannot keep to gain a prize she can never lose—he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain a prize he can never lose/
Book Recommendations:
Don’t Waste Your Life…
Treasure Principle…
(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)
Text: Matthew 6: 19-24
Title: The Currency of Heaven
As a 5 or 6 year old child in England, I remember fantasizing about finding an old, wrinkled treasure map (use prop) left by pirates that would lead me to a chest buried somewhere, filled with gold coins, diamonds, rubies and sapphires.
Then, when I was a little bit older, maybe around ten or so, according to my grandmother, I always asked her “How can I be rich when I grow up?” “How can I be rich?” I guess, as a boy of saw my grandmother, who was very generous, as also being wealthy.
Then, as a teenager, I was trying to figure out how I could make the most amount of money with the least amount of education. “Dealing drugs?” Perhaps.
I’m sure I was more of materialistic than most of you were as children, but the desire to have wealth is a primal one.
When we give our lives to Christ what happens to that desire?
Is the desire for wealth obliterated? I think it be more accurate to say that they were re-purposed…
If you have your Bibles with you, please turn to Matthew 6: 19.
This text is part of Jesus’ famous sermon on the mount.
Treasures in Heaven
19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, [c] your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, [d] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
When Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,” in case you are wondering, he is not saying that we shouldn’t have bank accounts. Paul a writer of the Bible tells us that it is natural for parents to save for their children (2 Cor.. The Book of Proverbs, the writer praises the industry of the ant for saving for the future.
Pray for Audrey Orton
Jesus is not so much condemning people for saving money or investing it, he is however warning people about putting their security in earthly investments.
Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” In Jesus’ day people could build wealth by hoarding clothes because clothes were a kind of currency of the way. People like Versace, the Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, my fashion conscious younger sister would have been especially wealthy if they had lived in the first century. People could also become wealthy if they were able to store grain in barns. If a famine hit and the grain prices soared, a person could become fabulously rich. A third way a person could get rich in the ancient world was by exchanging their assets for gold. Jesus pointed out that none of these investments were really secure. Your garment, after all, could be lunch for a moth; grain could be eaten by mice or rats, or could just rot; thieves could steal your gold.
A couple of thousand years later, wealth is still not secure. People were stunned recently here in Canada when CIBC, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and some investors tied to them--lost billions of dollars on investments that were regarded as guaranteed Triple A-rated investments (CHECK). The markets have been very shaky around the world in this year. Analysts are telling us that the U.S. is headed for a recession this year. That, of course, will affect us here in Canada. As we know because the global economy is now integrated, even a recession in a small country on the other side of the world can trigger economic downtown right here in Canada.
When Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal,” he is not preaching “doom and gloom” he is simply warning us against putting our security in earthly investments that are so insecure. But “Jesus doesn’t just tell us where not to invest, he also gives us the best investment advice ever—we are to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven.”
Jesus does not condemn our ambition. He simply elevates it. Jesus invites us to make an investment that will pay off forever. The fact is that even if our earthly investments do not crash, there will come a time when our earthly investments will be taken from us through death, and a day will come when all of our money and earthly goods will be worth nothing.
On January 1, 2002, 12 European countries switched from their existing currencies to the new currency, the Euro. After a grace period of a couple of months, all the currencies in these countries would become useless. According to the Chicago Tribune, two men in Berlin planned to fill an empty swimming pool with 45 million dollars worth of Deutschmarks and invited people to dive in. The Austrians planned to turn their shillings into 560 tons of compost. There will come a day when all of our money will be no more valuable than compost.
Jesus here, in Matthew 6, is telling us that we cannot rely on our earthly wealth that will not last and that we can’t take with us to the next life.
There was a man who worked all his life and saved as much as he could. He loved money more than anything.
Just before he died, he said to his wife, "When I die, I want you to take all my money and put it in the casket with me. I want to take my money to the afterlife with me." His wife promised she would.
At his funeral, just before the undertakers closed the casket, his wife put a box in the casket. The undertakers shut the casket and rolled it away.
The wife's friend said, " I know you weren't foolish enough to put all that money in there with that man."
She said, "I can't lie. I promised him I would put that money in the casket with him."
"You mean to tell me you put that money in the casket with him?" her friend asked.
"I sure did," said the wife. "I wrote him a check."
We can’t take it with us, but by investing in the things of God we can send it on ahead.
Martin Luther, the great reformer, said, “Everything I have kept I have lost, but all that I have given to God I still possess.” We can’t take it with us, but we can send it on ahead.
As Augustine we can exchange our earthly money for the currency of heaven.
Some of you, who are not familiar perhaps with this teaching of the Bible, may ask, “What do you mean by sending it on ahead?” The Bible clearly teaches that there will be a life to come after death. It is not simply wishful thinking, but the Bible clearly teaches it. The Bible also teaches (though people are sometimes embarrassed to talk about this) that there will be rewards in the life to come for those who have been faithful to God here on earth... The Bible teaches that many people, who have been considered first in this life because they had great wealth and hoarded it, will be last in the world to come. And many who are considered last in this world, because they didn’t have much by worldly standards and give what little they had to other people, will be first in the world to come.
What will these rewards look like in the world to come? As Randy Alcorn points out in his booklet the Treasure Principle Scriptures tell us the rewards of God include power (and the opportunity to govern cities). “Possessions,” and “ Pleasures”. And Jesus in Matthew 19:29 actually promised that those who sacrifice for him on earth for him will receive over a hundred times as much in heaven (Matthew 19:29). That’s a 10,000% investment return!
Some people say, “Well, it is selfish if you want to store up rewards for yourself in the next life.” But Jesus here in Matthew 6 commands us to do it. Storing up treasure in heaven is not a zero sum equation; your gaining treasure in heaven does not mean someone else will miss out.
Serve the living God to put it crassly ultimately serves our self interest. Perhaps not in the short-term--short-term, we may suffer considerably for serving Christ, but in the long-term it is always in our interest to serve God. It’s not necessarily wrong to be blessed for doing what is right and what we were made to do. As a pastor named John Piper says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”
Jesus says, “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” As I said two weeks ago, “Jesus here teaches that our heart will follow our treasure. He didn’t say our treasure will follow our heart.” I talked about how we know this by experience, when we buy an i-pod or a snowboard, a bike, a car or a condo, that when we put our treasure in these things, part of our heart gets attached. It is not necessarily wrong to buy any of these things, but it just gets attached. It is also true that when we invest in the things of God, when we tithe to the work of God through the church, when we invest in a para-church organization like World Vision or World Relief, that works to bring aid and opportunities for underprivileged children in the developing world, when we send money as we recently did to China through International China Concern (ICC) who are at great risk because of the severe winter, to Kenya to bring aid, as we make a long term investment in Cambodia, part of our heart goes to what God is doing in these places.
If you want a heart for God, a heart for eternity, the heart for things that will truly last, then invest in God, invest in the work of God, and your heart will follow.
Sometimes I pray, “God, teach me to care and not to care. Teach me to care, and not to care.” I want to care about things that will last forever, and I don’t want to care about things that are fleeting. If you were to come to our house, trip and fall into a vase and it were to smash, I want to be a person who doesn’t care very much about that because that vase is not something that will “last anyway.” I pray teach me to care and not to care. Teach me to be passionate and dispassionate. If you want to become a person who doesn’t care, in the best sense of that word, if you want to become a person who doesn’t become attached to things that are fleeting, that are passing, transient and temporal, invest your treasure in God, in things that will last forever, and your heart will follow.
Investing in heaven not only benefits us personally, but it also enables us to make a huge difference in the lives of people around the world. Randy Alcorn in this book Treasure Principle (hold up) says, “Giving is a giant lever positioned on the fulcrum of this world, allowing us to move mountains in the next world. Because we give, eternity will be different for others and for us.” (Powerpomt)
John and Sylvia Ronsvale have estimated that, if Christians in North America would faithfully tithe their income (which means responds to God’s call on every follower of Christ to give at least 10% of their income to the work of God), there would be approximately an additional hundred billion dollars available to help meet needs around the world. That extra hundred billion could meet the most essential human needs in the globe such as projects for clean water and sanitation, pre-natal and infant maternal care, basic education immunization, and very much-needed economic development to impoverished communities around the world.
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals which range from halving extreme poverty and providing universal primary education by 2015 are achievable goals. Governments have pledged money toward these lofty, millennium development goals, but, as we all know, governments around the world have a habit of pledging money, but then not following through on that pledge money.
Not only Christians who happen to be stars like Bono, but ordinary people like us should call on our governments to support movements like the Millennium Development goals and other efforts to alleviate poverty around the world.
We should also encourage ourselves to be faithful in giving to the work of God. I think that each Christian should walk in a close relationship with one or two other Christians, at least, and we should ask each other how we are doing in our walk with God, including how we are doing in our giving (I’m delighted we’re this series is sparking a conversation about both Sabbath and money). Kevin Miller talks about how when his dad was 60 years old, he gave his life over to Christ. He began to read the Bible for the first time on his life and he began to tithe and began to give his money generously. Kevin’s dad told him that it has been a great adventure. Kevin said, “My dad suffered a heart attack at age 70 and five days later he died. At the funeral home they laid him in a casket with his navy blazer and tie.” Kevin said, “At the funeral a woman I had never seen came up to me and said, ‘You don’t know me, but I was in a bad marriage and my husband was beating me. But I needed to get out to save my life. I didn’t know what I would do to support myself. Your dad paid for me to go to junior college and get the degree so I could become a dental hygienist. He paid for the whole thing and no one else knew about it. Now I have a job and I am making it. Your dad literally saved my life.’” Kevin says, “God helped free his dad from a love of money. Because of that, among other things, the woman now knows every day when she cleans people teeth that it is a miracle that she is alive, and she thanks God.”
One day in the life to come that woman will thank Kevin’s father. As we give, we can unleash blessings that will last forever in the lives of people in this world, some of whom we will not meet until the world to come.
In closing, I want to just take a moment to address some different groups here because we are diverse here at this church, not only in race, but also in age.
I want to speak to those of you here who are students. Some of you are at UBC, some at Regent, some at other schools. As I said a couple of weeks ago, I would urge you to begin to follow God’s call for you to tithe now as students when you are not making a lot of money. Tithing is setting aside the first tenth of your income to the work of God.
A student from UBC approached me and said, “I make no money. What would my tithe be? 10% of nothing is nothing.” If you are not working, don’t sweat it. But as you income perhaps through a gift, giving an offering. Use your time and talent to invest in to invest in the work of God.
But if you are working part-time, begin to tithe now. One day you will be making a 5-figure income, some 6, and a few of you perhaps 7 or figure incomes. If you don’t tithe now, you certainly won’t tithe then. Tithing will not only set your heart in the right direction, but will unleash powerful blessings through you in the world. Begin to set God-honoring habits while you are young.
And I want to say to those of you who are still considering what career path to choose, don’t choose a career path just because it is going to generate a lot of money for you. When I was an undergrad, I began as a business economics major. Most of the people in my graduating class were business economics majors. I went to university in the late 1980s when the stock market was very robust. Many of my classmates aspired to become investment bankers, stock brokers on Wall Street.
A very devoted Christian professor of mine, named Lyle Dorset, challenged me and my classmates by asking us, “How many more investment bankers does America need?” (By the way, Canada and America need investment bankers and that’s your call, please don’t feel judged at all. But the late 1980s was a very heady time where you make a lot of money on Wall Street.) Lyle challenged us to consider using our gifts in business economics to help bring economic health to places like Cabrina Green which was then considered one of the poorest and most dangerous sections of urban Chicago.
We could go to some places in Africa or in Latin America to use our gifts in economics and business to these places. Lyle Dorset, who became a good friend of mine, told me in private that sometimes he would get irate calls from parents who would say, “I am not spending 60,000 dollars so my kid can work in some kind of slum.” By using this example, I am not saying that all of you need to work with the very poor, but I am saying to you don’t choose your career path because of a dollar figure. Choose your career path because you feel that that would be the best way you could use your gifts to make a difference in the world. If it happens to be very high pay, don’t feel guilty about it, but use that income stream, in turn, to bring blessing, a blessing to people that will last forever.
Let those who are single—young or old. Singleness provides you with a great gift… you have freedom to give significant amounts of your money and time to the work of God that will last forever.
As my friend Catherine who for the longest wanted to be single and married to Christ says as single person every child can be your child.
I want to speak to you who are in your careers and those of you are considering getting married and perhaps beginning a family one day. I want to say you are thinking about getting married or are married, don’t idolize your spouse, even if they are amazing and you sometimes tempted to sing “how great thou art”. Put God first, your partner second and that will be the best gift that you can give to your partner. If you put God first, you love your partner out of love for God.
If you become parents one day, the order is God first, spouse second, children third. I know it’s not quite that simple, but if you get that order mixed up you can create all kinds of problems. The best thing a couple can do for each other is to put God first, as I just said. And the best thing a couple can do for their kids is to love each other at a higher priority level than their own kids. If you start loving your kids more than your marriage partner, it’s obviously not good for your partner and not good for your kids—it’s wierd.
This order also ought to be reflected in our giving and in our investments. In our culture we tend to emphasize children, and that is in most a very good thing, but we can over-emphasize children and make them idols by pouring all our resources into them.
When I was working in Tokyo, I remember my dad came to visit me. One night we had a very personal conversation and he talked about he regretted the fact that he wouldn’t be able to leave x amount of dollars for us 5 kids. (He actually named the dollar amount.) My dad began his career in international business, but then as a young man he switched over to journalism, working first for the BBC and then CBC as a broadcaster and producer. My dad ended up, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, working for the CBC (which is quasi-government). So we are talking modest income, single income. That was his “call” more business.
I remember saying to my dad, “It doesn’t matter. I don’t think any of your 5 kids are going to need money in the future.” I don’t know if I said this at the time, but I know that I reflected on it, that my dad and my mom have given me and my 4 siblings something far more important than a financial windfall—they have given us an example of a mom and dad who put God first…who gave generously to the work of God…who gave generously to other people. That’s a far more important legacy than money.
For those of you who are parents, and when you become parents, put God first in your giving. Give generously to the work of God. Love your spouse and those will be great legacies that you will be passing on to your children.
Now, I will speak to those of you who are older. I guess in our church that might be anyone past 40 and above. The others can listen in.
I want you to crush, obliterate, forsake forever the typical North American ideal of a dream retirement where you buy a home in Florida or Arizona and you spend all of your days golfing, playing tennis, lawn bowling. I want you to follow the example of someone like Ken Nixon in our congregation who recently celebrated his 80th birthday.
He has been a big blessing to me personally and to this community. To honour him on his 80th birthday, our staff had lunch with him and Ken was sharing how he didn’t want to spend his retirement years just collecting shells on a beach, but serving God. He referenced a message I gave some years ago in which I cited a story about a couple that originated in Reader’s Digest as having taken their early retirement in their 50s and are now living in Punta Gorda, Florida where they spent all their time cruising on their 30-foot boat, playing softball and collecting shells.
I said in that message, “When you come to the end of your life--your one and only life on earth-- and God asks you to give an account for your life, and specifically those retirement years when perhaps when you had the most freedom and the most disposable income, the house all paid off, etc. I said you don’t want to get to that day and stand before your Creator, sort of hesitating, pausing and saying. ‘Lord, you want to see my shells?’”
Use your retirement years to serve the living God, to make a difference in the world. It doesn’t mean you can’t take a vacation once in a while in a warm place as an older person. It would probably be good for your health, but don’t spend the last decades of your life selfishly spending all your time—playing softball, sailing, and collecting shells. Leverage your life as Ken Nixon is doing--and many retired people in our congregation are doing--to make a difference in eternity.
Living not for the dot of temporary existence, but for the line (Powerpoint image) –a line of eternity—
Pastor John Piper in his book Don’t Waste Your Life writes…
The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on into eternity, you don't need to have a high IQ. You don't have to have good looks or riches or come from a fine family or a fine school. Instead you have to know a few great, majestic, glorious things… and be set on fire by them.
One of those great glorious truths that can set us ablaze is that we can invest our lives in way that will echo in eternity…
Prayer:
BENEDICTION:
19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
As you leave this place, know that there will be a cost involved in investing in heaven. But as Jim Elliott once said, “Become people who love God from the very depth of your and who know she is no fool who gives up what she cannot keep to gain a prize she can never lose—he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain a prize he can never lose/
Book Recommendations:
Don’t Waste Your Life…
Treasure Principle…
(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)
posted by Shigematsu at 8:33 PM
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