Coveting and Simplicity(21Nov10)

Series: Loving God through the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments M9 Sermon Notes (10 11 21)
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: Coveting and Simplicity
Text: Deuteronomy 5:21; 1 Timothy 6:6
BIG IDEA: We are freed from coveting when we feast on God.
In the movie Amadeus, Salieri was the court musician in Vienna. He worked hard at his music, writing reasonably good melodies and choral pieces.
As a young man he had prayed fervently, "God, Let me make music that will glorify you… Through my music, help me lift the hearts of people to heaven.”
Then came boy-wonder—the young Mozart. His music dazzled people. His melodies were complex and fun all at the same time; they soared and seemed to bring heaven to earth.
But Mozart, at least as the film portrayed him, was immature, vain, and vulgar. He chased girls around the room and he giggled with a silly, irritating laugh. Salieri grew miserable coveting Mozart`s talents. Salieri had lived a holy and obedient life. Why shouldn’t he enjoy some of that kind of success?
Have we all looked at a sibling, or colleague, or friend and thought if only I had their_______. Haven't we all coveted someone else's success or salary, or spouse or situation?
Today as we come to the end of our series in the Ten Commandments, we’re going to look at the commandment against coveting.
If you have your Bibles please turn to Deuteronomy 5:21
21 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
The translation for the Hebrew word translated in English covet, hamad, means to over-desire something, to want something inordinately. We may dream about the thing we want, we may feel that our life has no meaning or value or significance without that thing or person. Our coveting may even become so strong that we are willing to do almost anything to get it and experience utter despair if we don’t. There is nothing wrong with desiring something. Desire itself is a gift from God. But when we covet, i.e. when over-desire something to point where we feel that our life would have no meaning or significance or value without that thing or person, when we do almost anything to get that thing or person, where we would feel complete despair if we didn't get that thing or person, when our desire for that thing or person becomes greater than our desire for God, then we have broken the Tenth Commandment and have sinned by coveting.
In the first message in this series, No god but God, we alluded to the fact that all the other commandments flow from the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Or framed positively, “Thou shall put God first.” If we could consciously choose to keep only one commandment, the most important commandment to keep would be the First Commandment; that is, “To have no other gods, but God.” That is to put God first. If we kept the First Commandment and had no god but God, by definition we would keep the Second Commandment. We would not have any idols, whether those idols are romance, family, career, making money... If we kept the First Commandment and had no god but God we would never, as KP talked about, empty the name of God of its value by not living in a way that reflected the name and character of God. If we kept the First Commandment, we would honour Sabbath, as Jade (Dan and Lee) talked about, and honour our parents… on so on…. And we would keep this Tenth Commandment: if we had put God first, we would not covet our neighbour’s spouse or stuff.
The First Commandment seems really important if we think of it in that light. It is foundational and the key to keeping all the others.
The Tenth Commandment, at least on first glance, doesn’t seem all that important. We might ask, “Why is there a commandment against coveting? What’s the big deal in coveting?” The Tenth Commandment, though it may not appear so on the surface, is a foundational commandment like the First Commandment, which calls us to put God first in our heart. The Tenth Commandment shows us just how important the attitude of our heart is.
As we read Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, we see that what is most important to God is not simply the external keeping of the commandments, but the attitude of our heart in honouring the intention of the commandment. When Jesus spoke on the Sixth Commandment against murder, he also condemned the destructive anger that we can harbor in our hearts, the anger that leads to murder and, if not literal murder, to the maiming of others through our words. Jesus affirmed that committing adultery was wrong, but he also condemned staring at another person in order to deepen our sexual desire for that person (assuming we do not have a relationship with that person) so we would take the person sexually, if we could. With Jesus, it wasn’t just the outward action, but the inner attitude of our heart that mattered.
Now, the reason why the Tenth Commandment against coveting is so foundational is because it helps us ensure that the state of our heart is in alignment with God and his intentions for us. If we are people who covet, we will commit other sins. We know this from experience and we see clearly this illustrated in Scripture.
In the book of Joshua we read about a man named Achan who came across silver, a wedge of gold, and the equivalent of an Armani suit, all that were not his. We read in Scripture that he coveted them and stole them (Joshua 7:21). Achan’s coveting these valuables led him to break the Ninth Commandment against stealing.
King David, the great shepherd king of Israel, on a balmy spring evening was out on the roof of his palace. He was bored and he was restless. He noticed a beautiful woman named Bathsheba bathing. She was married to one of David’s most loyal soldiers, Uriah the Hittite. David did not simply admire her beauty. He stared at her and deepened his sexual desire for her, such that he wanted to take her. And as the King of Israel he had the power to do so. David’s coveting of Bathsheba, another man’s wife, led him to adultery (2 Samuel 11-12) and later to the murder of her husband.
In 1 Kings 21 we read of King Ahab, an evil king of Israel, who covets the vineyard of a man named Naboth. As a result of his coveting Naboth’s vineyard, he actually ends up breaking three of the commandments. He uses false witnesses to testify against Naboth accusing him of cursing God and the King, breaking the Ninth Commandment so Naboth is executed. Ahab breaks the Sixth Commandment against murder. Then he breaks the Eighth Commandment against stealing by confiscating Naboth’s vineyard. So coveting, in the case of Ahab, leads to lying, murder and theft.
We could continue to add examples of how coveting causes us to break all the Ten Commandments. God didn’t just add the Tenth Commandment against coveting because he wanted ten, which is considered a more complete number than nine, and so was desperate to come up with something.
No, he added the Tenth Commandment because the Tenth Commandment, like the First, is foundational. When we keep the First Commandment, we are able to keep the Tenth Commandment, which is arguably the least concrete, but the one that most deals with the attitude of our hearts--by keeping the First Commandment, putting God first, having no god but God, we are able to keep the Tenth.
If we don’t keep the First Commandment we will find ourselves coveting.
As we talked about in the first message in this series, the Ten Commandments reflect the way we were designed, the way we were made. We were created to put God first. We were made to worship and serve the living God. If we don’t worship and serve the Living God, the desire to seek and serve God will be redirected and we will seek and serve something else.
In Romans 1:5, we read:
25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
We were created to worship and serve the living God, but if we don’t worship and serve the Creator, we will worship and serve created things. If we don’t find our meaning and value and significance in seeking and serving the Living God, we will put our value, significance and meaning in some thing or someone else. It might be a romantic relationship or having a particular kind of family, or the approval of someone important in our life. It might be career or making money. It might be your beauty or your athletic ability or your brains or some great cause. Or perhaps the Christian ministry. If we don’t turn to the Living God for our value, meaning and significance, we will covet value or meaning or significance in some one or something else. Not putting God first leads to idolatry and idolatry leads to coveting.
Part of what is so diabolical about coveting is that even when we attain the thing that we are coveting, if the thing we are coveting does not include God, we will eventually feel empty.
Scottie Pippen, the famous basketball player and a long-time teammate of Michael Jordan, was born into a small house crammed with lots of people and didn't have much as a boy. But his journey into the NBA changed all that. His NBA contract promised him at least $14.7 million a year—which did not include income from his endorsements. He already owned a 74-foot yacht and a $100,000 Mercedes.
But that doesn't shield him comparing himself to others and coveting. A Sports Illustrated feature said: "Before every [home] game in Portland's… Pippen lets his gaze drift over to the courtside seat occupied by Paul Allen, cofounder of Microsoft and owner of both the Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks, a man with a personal net worth of $40 billion. 'What does he have?' Pippen asks. 'Forty billion? How can I make just one billion? I just want one of them! What do I need to do?'"
If Pippen gets his one billion one day, will he be satisfied?
Part of the reason that attaining what we covet will not satisfy us long term is because we are always apt to compare our self to someone who has more…
I read a column by Pico Iyer in the New York Times. He was writing about how he now wanted to simplify his life, after having felt like he had had enough of the rat-race in the corporate world. He wrote: “I remember how in the corporate world I always knew there was some higher position I could attain which meant that like Zeno’s arrow I was guaranteed to never arrive, always to remain dissatisfied.”
Even if we momentarily reach the very pinnacle of whatever it is that is our thing—whether it’s money, to become the richest person in the world—if it’s a career, we become the leading person in the world in that field or end up with our “dream person” and we are momentarily on top of the world--without God—eventually--we feel there is a part of us that is empty, because God made a part of our heart so deep that no amount of money, no career achievement, no romantic relationship can fully satisfy us.
C. S. Lewis said, “Nothing in this world can completely satisfy us because we were made for something beyond this world.” We were made for God.
So how do we become people who honour this Tenth Commandment?
One of the ways we are prepared to practically honour the Tenth Commandment against coveting is by shunning comparisons. I know it is impossible to completely stop comparing ourselves to others, but in so far as possible avoid comparing.
The reason that Scottie Pippin was not satisfied with a $15 million a year contract was because he was comparing himself to Paul Allen. When we compare ourselves, we usually compare ourselves to people further down the path from us and that leads to coveting.
If we compare our appearance to someone we consider more attractive than us--it will lead to coveting that person’s looks.
If we compare our work and career curve to someone else we consider is doing better than we are--we will also find ourselves coveting.
(Now the answer is not to compare yourself with someone who is doing less well than you are. The answer isn't to look backwards over your shoulder and say, "you're such a loser." That simply leads to pride.)
In general, it's simply best to avoid comparing yourself to other people and their situations. "If only, if only, if only..." can be a deadly phrase. Thinking things like, "if only I had her boyfriend" or “his family” "if only I had their salary" or “if only I had that job..." This kind of thinking only intensifies our coveting, leads to misery, and may in fact set us on a path that we were never intended to travel down, as we seek to live someone else's story.
Near the end of the Gospel of John, Jesus implies to Peter that he would die a martyr's death. Peter then asks Jesus, "What about John, what will his path be?" Jesus replies, "What is that to you?" Some of us are tempted to compare our path to the path of someone else, and Jesus may well be saying, "What is that to you?"
I have been reading Wynton Marsalis’s book, Letters to a Young Jazz Musician, and in that book Marsalis says in speaking to young musicians, “Be yourself.” He says, “Duke Ellington (the great jazz musician) said it best: ‘It’s better to be a number one yourself than a number two somebody else’.” 2x. I love that. You get the next world, God will not ask you, "why are you not Moses?" Or "why were you not Mother Teresa?" He'll ask you, "why were you not you?"
Part of what it means to avoid the sin of coveting is to refuse to compare, and to embrace the unique call that God has on your life.
And, second, you know where I am going now. The way to honour the Tenth Commandment is to put God first.
We have longings, powerful, primal longings, and the best way to deal with those longings is to channel them to the One for whom they were made.
Gerald May, the acclaimed psychiatrist, in his extremely helpful book, Addiction and Grace, writes, “After 20 years of listening to the yearnings of people’s hearts, I am convinced that all human beings have an inborn desire for God. Whether we are consciously religious or not, this desire is our deepest longing and our most precious treasure.”
And so, we honour the Tenth Commandment by directing our cravings, our primal longings toward the one for whom we were made, the Living God.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whosoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
We are hungry people, but all of our hungers, whether it is for love, romance, family, finding meaning in our work or career, all of these hungers are all symptoms of our craving for God.
So we honour the commandment against coveting by seeking to find our heart’s satisfaction in God. As that happens we find ourselves more content. The apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 6:6 says:
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
To people who are running after money and other idols, godliness coupled with contentment would be a great gain. As many people have observed, there is a clear link between godliness and contentment. It’s no accident Paul mentions has them side by side in this verse. Godliness leads to contentment.
St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), the author of the great book, Introduction to the Devout Life wrote: “The immature are unhappy over what they don’t have, and the mature are happy with what they do have.”
It as we find our self increasingly satisfied in God that we will find ourselves content.
So feast on God and drink of the Holy Spirit.
Embrace the forgiveness and the friendship that is offered to you through God’s Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross, absorbing your sin and shame so that you can be forgiven and freed and adopted into God’s family as a treasured son or daughter and friend.
Eat--Jesus who is the bread of life and drink of the Holy Spirit.
Some of you may be saying, "But, don’t you have to say that as a preacher?"
In your heart, some of you have said in effect, "What good is it to have God in my life, if I don't have this or that?"
I have a mentor who serves a pastor in New York City. Before serving in New York, as younger pastor he served a small church in Virginia. I remember him sharing that while he was in Virginia, he was counseling a teenage girl in his office. She was quite depressed because she was thin to the point of being unattractive. She also was having some skin problems. She was so down because she couldn't attract any boys. Tim, leaned forward and said, "You don't have to be depressed... you have no reason to be down... Think about it, you have Jesus Christ. Your sins have been forgiven. You've been adopted into God's family. You are a daughter of the King."
This teenage girl responded by saying, "Yeah, so what? What good does that do me if I can't get any dates?"
Most of us adults are too polite to say that. But, in our hearts some of us have said, "What good is it to have God if I don't have_______?
If we really treasure Christ in our hearts--we will find ourselves coveting less, more grateful, and more content.
I know this all sounds somewhat abstract. So let me illustrate from my own experience.
As I said a couple weeks ago, when I was a young teenager, I love the rush of shoplifting. I also enjoyed the thrill of temporarily borrowing other people's cars and joyriding. (I had a friend who worked at the gas station – I had connections.) My dad became concerned about me. He took me on an open house to prison. He later said, “I just wanted you to see your future home – free room and board, courtesy of the Canadian government.” It didn't phase me. My dad had just become a Christian. So he took me to a Christian youth conference. At that conference I receive Christ in my life and my life begins to change.
To my great surprise, I find myself with a hunger to read the Bible. I also discover that I have a new love for learning. Up to this point, I had been a "C" or "D" student. With my new love for learning, my grades start to rise from the ashes. As a fairly new follower of Christ, my youth pastor Jack Campbell received the call to become a missionary in Africa. It was a big loss. But it also became an opportunity for me and my friend Dave to become the de facto leaders of our youth group. And while I was not the best athlete on the sports teams, it seemed that my teammates were counting on me more. They wanted to get the ball into my hands at the end of the game.
From time to time people would describe me metaphorically as a "favored son."
As a young person doors opened for me. Doors opened to the school I really wanted to study at. A door opens to the company that I really want to work for in Tokyo. Not long after finishing seminary, this door--the door to Tenth opens--even when people say it probably won't because I am young, single, and an ethnic minority. As I shared last Sunday, the door opens for me to marry the girl I really want to marry.
I feel blessed. I feel like I'm living the role of his favored, blessed son.
Then– to our surprise, we get pregnant, and a couple of years ago Joey is born.
Now, Joey has been such a great gift to us--a miraculous gift--from God.
But my life, as it should, really changes once Joey is born.
After a trip to Mexico when Joey is just six weeks old--where I was hoping that he would rise to the occasion--his behavior at six weeks tanks – then I make a decision to cut my traveling and speaking way back. It's the right decision.
But if I'm honest, there are times when I have observed how some of the people I went to school with who married and started families earlier than I did are now at the point where their kids are older and so they are traveling and speaking more than I am. And I can covet their situation. I can even covet earlier versions of my work life when I was out and about more.
But I sense God calling me to resist the temptation to compare them to embrace the gifts of my current calling.
Here's the irony: to be honest, there are still moments when I wish I had the freedom to represent Canada as a Christian leader at a recent conference in Cape Town, South Africa or to accept an invitation to speak in Scotland, the country that I love, but the irony is I have shared spontaneously many times with Sakiko at our small dining table at home over dinner, "This is one of the most happy seasons of my life." My life is not very glamorous these days; in many ways it's very ordinary. But my ordinary life with God, my ordinary life with my family... The stuff that's not at all dazzling to the outside world... feel like such precious gifts. I find myself deeply grateful.
Sometimes we feel that our life will begin, really begin when this happens or that happens...
Our life would finally begin if only, if only, if only...
But perhaps for some of us, our greatest gifts have already been given to us... in the ordinary circumstances of our lives. God is calling us to discover what we already have.
St. Augustine once prayed, "Ancient beauty, ever new, you were within me, but I was living outside of myself.” Whether we know it or not, if we have Christ we already have a treasure that is worth more than all the world. The people around us who love us and whom we love, we are treasures that are worth more all gold or rubies in the world or all stocks of Apple or Google combined. Perhaps for some of us the path to from coveting to contentment is discovering what we already have.
Our hope for the Practicing the Presence movement, where over 1000 people have committed to spending time with God, is not just that we get more information, but that we pause long enough to recognize the infinite gift that we have in God the perfect father and his Son Jesus Christ, who died to redeem us, and in the Holy Spirit. And as a result of that, we would be the grateful for the gifts that God has given us in the people and circumstances of our everyday, ordinary lives
It is as our heart is increasingly satisfied in God and his gifts for us that we will be less tempted to covet after things that ultimately not satisfy us anyway and more content.
John Piper is a pastor from Minnesota, who wrote a book called The Pleasures of God.
He dedicates that book to his sons. He writes these words:
“Finally, a word to my sons…. If there is a legacy I want to leave you, it is not money or house or land; it is a vision of God—as great and glorious a God as one could ever see. But more than that, I want to leave the legacy of passion for this God. A passion far beyond what any human being can produce. A passion for God flowing from the very heart of God. Never forget that God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him….”

The Truth Will Set You Free(14Nov10)

Series: Loving God through the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments M8 Sermon Notes (10 11 14)
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: The Truth Will Set You Free
BIG IDEA: We express our love for God, ourself and our neighbour when we tell the truth.
Text: Deuteronomy 5:20; Ephesians 4:25; Colossians 3:9-10
In the comedy Liar, Liar, Jim Carrey plays the role of an ambitious lawyer named Fletcher Reed. Fletcher’s career clearly takes priority over his family—over and over again he breaks promises to be with his young son Max, and then lies to both Max and Max’s mother, Fletcher’s ex-wife Audrey about the real reason Fletcher missed the get-together.
Fletcher lets Max down once too often though, missing his 5th birthday party, and has to deal with the consequences. While blowing out the candles on his cake Max makes a wish that Fletcher cannot tell a lie for an entire day. His wish actually comes true.
For Fletcher the timing could not be worse. He is fighting a child custody case in court, which, if he wins, would be a huge boost to his career. His main witness is willing to commit perjury (to lie under oath) to help win the case, but Fletcher discovers he cannot even ask a question if he knows the answer will be a lie.
Over the course of the film, Fletcher realizes what is truly important to him and how important it is to tell the truth.
As we continue our series in the Ten Commandments today, we are going to look at God's perspective on lying and truth telling. We are going to see how this commandment, like the others, is an expression of God's love for us and our neighbor; and as we keep the commandment how it is an expression of trust in God’s love for us.

So, please turn to Deuteronomy 5:20: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
We know the intent is broader and could be put, “Thou shall not lie.”
In Proverbs 6:16-19, we read that the LORD hates lies:
16 There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up dissension in the community.
In Proverbs 12:22, we also read:
22 The LORD detests lying lips,
but he delights in people who are trustworthy.
Why does God prohibit lying? God prohibits lying because lying hurts our neighbour. And lying hurts us. And when we hurt our neighbour and hurt ourselves, we dishonour our Maker.
How does lying hurt our neighbour?
When this commandment was originally given, the primary context that this commandment was directed to was the law court.
For the Hebrews in the Ancient Near East, justice depended on witnesses to a much larger extent than in our times. They did not have surveillance cameras or DNA tests. Establishing a person’s innocence depended on honest witnesses and their integrity. For example, a death sentence was so important that it required two or three unanimous witnesses (Deut. 17:6; 19:15). In addition, anyone who accused another of murder had to cast the first stone against the accused (Deut. 17:7). If the accusation is false, the accuser would bear the punishment that the accused would have faced had the accusation been accurate. There were no frivolous lawsuits in ancient Israel.
Lying involves more than simply the breaking some kind of abstract rule.
Lying hurts our neighbour.
Have you ever been lied to and found out about later?
How did you feel?
How would you feel, for example, if you were sold a house in Vancouver only to learn a few months later that the house contained a kind of insulation known to cause cancer?
Wouldn’t you feel violated?
Even if the lie is less consequential… let’s say someone tells you she can’t spend time with you this weekend because she’s going to be out of town—but you find out later, she’s really in town, and for some reason, unknown to you, she doesn’t want to hang out with you.
How do you feel? You likely feel disrespected. You probably feel diminished, sensing the person who lied to you did not feel you could handle the real reason.
Lying also destroys relationships and communities.
Lying creates a wall between you and the person. When you lie to someone, you erect a wall that distances you from someone, and you manage your communication from that emotional distance. You manage your communication with that person often ending up telling new lies to make the original lies sound consistent. As you do that, and you create this place of emotional distance between you and the person you have lied to.
Sir Walter Scott said: O, what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive.
Lying undermines the health of a community and its capacity to function properly.
This past week I heard the story of man who was in car accident. Someone “T-boned” him. The other driver crashed the front of their car into the side of his car. When he talked to the insurance agent later by phone, the insurance agent was giving him the runaround, assuming he was lying, trying to scam them.
Many of us know from experience that making a claim on an insurance policy can be a real hassle because in many cases the insurance company claim agents assume that we are lying. Why? In part, because a lot of people make fraudulent claims. Our communities would function in a much healthier way if people did not lie, and simply told the truth.
As I said, the original setting in which God spoke the Ninth Commandment was the court room. The Hebrew in the commandment include the technical legal terms: ed sheqer. Ed means evidence, meaning to present evidence for a trial; Sheqer means false, fraudulent, deceiving, meaning without basis in reality.
My friend Brent McKnight served as a federal judge in the US. Brent had been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, was highly respected as a judge and was considered a nominee for the US Supreme Court.
To give a little context here, a survey of more than 50 U.S. state and federal judges conducted by the ABA (American Bar Association) Journal, found that most of the judges interviewed said that increasingly "lawyers appearing before them are bending the truth, not telling the whole truth, or just plain lying."
Brent says to the lawyers who have appeared in his court room. “I will believe everything you say but if I ever discover that you are lying, you will never practice in this courtroom again.” Then he would say, “God forgives, but I don’t.” My friend Brent recognized that if the lawyers are lying, you are going to have miscarriages of justice that would affect real people with real lives and families. So, Brent’s categorical imperative in his court for his lawyers is “no lying.”
As with the other commandments, the commandment against lying is not there solely for the sake of personal morality or for the sake of being “good.” It is also in place because whether a person tells the truth or not affects the health and well-being of the whole community.
Charles Swezey, who was a professor of ethics at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, writes: “Life together is not possible without a minimal trust in the veracity of words… The institutionalization of this practice is a social condition for the survival of society.”
In the Ninth Commandment, the judge of all the earth prohibits lying because it hurts our neighbour and undermines the larger community.
Lying also hurts us.
Last Sunday in the message on stealing I cited Plato’s Republic. In one of Plato’s dialogues, he sets up a conversation where someone asks Socrates, “Is it ever to your advantage to be dishonest if, for instance, you knew that you would not be caught? For example, if you had the ring of Gyges, the magic ring that granted its owner the power to become invisible at will, would it ever be to your advantage to do evil?” And Socrates in a very elaborate dialogue argues, “No, it is never in your advantage to do evil, even if you know ahead of time that you will not get caught, because when you steal, you damage your own soul. It is never in your interest to damage your soul.”
(Now a little footnote: there may be rare certain circumstances when it is arguably better to lie than to tell the truth—the classic example is lying to save Jews in Europe during the war, but even then, it wrenches us on the inside. Somehow we know we are compromised by choosing the lesser of two evils.)
As we have seen in this series on the Ten Commandments, whenever the Scriptures say “don’t do something,” the implication is that we have a positive call. The commandment “thou shall not lie” involves a positive call to tell the truth.
Jesus in Matthew 5:37 says:
37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
In Ephesians 4:25 we read:
25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
In Colossians 3:9-10 we read:
9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
God calls us to tell the truth.
So why do we even lie in the first place?
Isn’t it true that we lie because we are insecure about something, something we are afraid of?
Many people who were considered the greatest athletes in the world--people like Marion Jones, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Lance Armstrong--have been under a cloud of suspicion for allegedly using performance enhancing steroids or drugs. Why would a person use steroids or drugs knowing full well the potential scandal and, more important, some of the possible horrible side effects that might ensue? Doesn't it come down to the fact that athletes, in many cases, have a fear of being simply ordinary, or simply being good instead of great? In many cases, athletes have a fear of appearing ordinary.
Or to bring this a little closer to home for us, perhaps we lie at work because we are afraid that we will lose a customer, so we say, “The cheque is in the mail,” when it is not. But if we look inside, if we dig deeper into our hearts, it is saying “I am afraid my business will not be successful.”
Or we exaggerate our resume because we are afraid about whether we will get the job or not, or for an online dating service because we fear we are not attractive enough.
Or, we are meeting with a person in a social situation, a person we really want to impress, so we exaggerate an accomplishment and spin the truth to put ourselves in a good light. Why do we that? Because we are insecure.
Why do we feel insecure and afraid?
There is a long history here. In the very beginning, back in the Garden of Eden we see Satan approaching the first human beings, Adam and Eve, in the form of a serpent.
He tempts them by suggesting that if they separate themselves from God and they eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the one tree that God has forbidden them , they won’t die; in fact, they will really live for the first time. They will be wise. They will be autonomous, free, fulfilled, more fully human than ever before. Satan’s temptation suggests that Adam and Eve would be better off separating themselves from God. (By the way, the sin is not wanting to be like God. We are created in God’s image and called to be like God as we love, lead, create, and relate. The sin is to be like God without God.).
But when Adam and Eve separate from God and bite the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, are they in fact better off? Are they wiser? Are they freer? Are they more fulfilled? Are they more fully human? No.
When they separate from God by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they immediately sense that something has been taken from them…something has been stripped from them. So they reach for a fig leaf—something to give them a sense of covering, security, and protection (use prop here).
The reason we lie is we are insecure…afraid… and we’re trying to reach for fig leaf.
God does for Adam and Eve—and us--what they could not do for themselves.
He covers us over…
2000 years ago God became a human being in Jesus Christ. When he was 33 years old he became naked, dying on a cross, absorbing our sin and shame in his body so that we could be forgiven. Christ became naked so that we could be covered in gleaming white garments, and able to enter into the presence of God without fear or shame. When our hearts really know that we have been deeply loved by God to the point where he became naked and as a human being allowed himself to be humiliated on a Roman cross, so that we could be covered in gleaming white garments, and received into God's living room as treasured sons and daughters of God, it is then that we can be healed of our insecurity, shame, and fear that causes us to lie, to spin, to cast ourselves in favorable light.
When this begins to happen, we become people who are able to tell the truth.
I have found this to be true in my own life.
Last Sunday I talked about how as a teenager I loved going into stores and experiencing the rush of stealing things. Part of the reason I valued my hobby of shoplifting was because it impressed my peers. And I was a very self-conscious, image-conscious teenager. But after I gave my life to Jesus Christ, I felt convicted about my need to make restitution. There was a part of me that was so afraid of going back to the stores and confessing the truth about my shoplifting. I wasn't so much concerned about paying back what I had stolen or about being arrested. I was just terrified of looking like an idiot to someone as I confessed to them that I had shoplifted stuff. I was afraid of losing face. But, because my insecurity was being healed by a growing sense of God's love for me, I was able to go back to those stores I had stolen from and meet with the store’s security people, confessed my shoplifting, and make restitution.
There was another area in my life where I found it difficult to be forthright. When I was romantically interested in someone, I found it difficult to express my feelings. I feared rejection. But, slowly over time even that fear was healed. I first met Sakiko right after undergrad when I was working in Tokyo. For me, it was love at first sight. But, I sensed that a mutual friend of ours was romantically interested in her so I did not pursue anything. Ten years later, I was in Japan meeting with this mutual friend and we had a very honest conversation. He told me, "I've always liked Sakiko, but just as a friend. She’s still beautiful and single." He also added, "She remembers you well and in fact she asks about you from time to time." He picked up the phone and called her, and then handed the phone to me. I said, "This is Ken from Canada.” She said, "I don't remember you." I said, "Would you like to go out for coffee with me tomorrow?" She said, "No – I have plans tomorrow." "Really? How about changing your plans?" Amazingly, she agreed to change her plans and have coffee with me. I turned to my friend and say, "This is the first time I get to see Sakiko in 10 years, I'm rarely in Japan these days... maybe I should tell her how much I've always really liked her... and maybe I should just ask her on the spot to marry me." My friend paused, and then wisely advised, "Maybe, because she didn't remember you, you'd be better off making it your goal to have another date at some point in the future."
(Good idea. To not reveal feelings out of wise discretion is good. But, to not reveal your feelings because you are afraid of rejection is not good).
I didn't propose to her on that coffee date (because of the wise discretion of my friend). But, my willingness to be candid and honest (even stupidly candid and honest) suggested to me that I was becoming more open. The reason I was more transparent was because I knew that as much as I wanted to be with Sakiko, her acceptance of me didn't determine my worth, because my worth was increasingly being found in God.
One more story here—where there’s considerable pressure at work.
A man I know named Charlie faced a quandary at work. As a chief financial officer of a major fast food company, he was asked to exaggerate the potential future earnings of the company to inflate the stock price so that when the company was sold off the executives could reap a financial windfall.
Charlie had recently entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ and he did not know what to do. He did want to mislead people with false numbers and cause the stock price of the company to artificially expand, placing the stock holders at risk—on the other hand as the breadwinner for his family, he felt he could not afford to be fired either. He was flown to New York City where he was scheduled to make a presentation before a group of investment bankers. In the hotel room the night before, Charlie could not sleep. He stayed up all night praying to his “new friend” Jesus for guidance. The morning he was scheduled to make the presentation before the investment bankers, the chairperson of the corporation which owned his company met him in the hallway, and urged Charlie to make the presentation with the inflated profits. Charlie said he could make a presentation with great enthusiasm, but could not lie about the numbers. The chairman gave him the ultimatum: “Make the presentation or get off the team.” He ended up walking down the hall and calling his wife Suzanne to tell her had been fired. He was convinced Jesus led him to make the right decision—to tell the truth, even though that decision cost him seven figures of income. Over dinner at his home, Charlie said to me, “That was the best business decision I’ve ever made.” He looked down at the fish on our plates, and said, "God has always provided all that we need. We've never gone without."
Even though Charlie was new to his friendship with Jesus Christ, he had begun to place his security in his new friend, and less in his career and his capacity to make money. As a result, he was less fearful and able to tell the truth.
But, how do we become people of the truth? How do we become people who know the truth, speak the truth, and are set free by the truth?
Again, at the risk of sounding like an old broken record, let me say again: The key to keeping every single commandment is to keep the First Commandment. If we put God first, if we have no god but God, if we make Jesus Christ the centre of our lives, we will become people who are secure enough to speak the truth.
When we put God first and we really place our really trust in him…when we invite him to cleanse us of all our impurities, which we can do because he came to us in Jesus Christ 2000 years ago, died naked on the cross, absorbing all our sin and shame in his body, so we can be forgiven and freed of our sins…invite him to cover us with gleaming white garments, to cover us with a sense of his boundless love for us, we will become less insecure, less fearful. We will feel less of a need to define ourselves by what other people think of us, less need to spin and exaggerate, less need to lie out of the worry that we won’t succeed if we are honest. We will become people who are secure and free enough to tell the truth.
Willpower and self-discipline are important, but keeping the Ninth Commandment--like keeping all the commandments--is less about willpower and self-discipline and more about grace, more about the grace of Jesus Christ and the grace of the Holy Spirit who can give us a new heart and a power to follow the ways of God.
As we are filled with Spirit, not only will we be set free to speak the truth personally, but if, as a community, we become people who speak the truth, then as a community we will become a freer place.
So let’s become people who speak the truth, and know we are covered by the love of Christ.

Stealer to Sharer(07Nov10)

Remember: science debate ad
Series: Loving God through the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments M7: Sermon Notes D: (10 11 07)
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: Stealer to Sharer
Text: Deuteronomy 5:19; Ephesians 4:28; Exodus 20:15
BIG IDEA: We express our love for God and our neighbour by not stealing and by giving generously.
When I was a young teenager, one of my favorite hobbies was shoplifting. I loved the rush of walking into a store and stealing. At first I stole little things like a little black rubber ball just to see if I could do it. I gradually worked up to the point where I felt confident stealing a baseball batting glove. Then I moved up a little further and started ripping off handheld electronic football games.
Especially if with a friend while stealing, I felt like I was part of a mini version of a movie like Mission Impossible. I always rationalized my stealing by saying to myself, "I'm not hurting anyone. This big store isn't going to be impacted by my little shoplifting. Besides, I'm giving some of the stuff away, and having a great time."
Personal computers were just becoming popular when I was a teenager, and I never figured out how to do this, but I understand today that teenagers (and older people) enjoy hacking into other people's computers and stealing their credit cards. Like me as a teenager, they enjoy the thrill of stealing something and they rationalize their "carding" by saying that actual credit card owners will not have to pay for the stuff that they (the hackers) have charged on their credit card because the credit card companies will pay for it. The credit card companies just assume that fraud is part the cost of doing business.
Today we’re going to look at God’s perspective on stealing as we look at the Eighth Commandment. Again we’ll see how it’s not motivated by God out of desire to wreck our lives, but so that we can flourish and others can flourish because of us.
Please turn to Deuteronomy 5:19: You shall not steal.
You shall not steal. Simply put. In the Hebrew it is even more simple, one word—no stealing.
The commandment against stealing, as we will see in the Old Testament, typically referred to kidnapping or the taking of cattle or sheep or tools.
Now there is a 3-fold reason for this commandment against stealing.
One of the reasons that God says no stealing is because it hurts our neighbour; that is, it hurts the person you steal from. Have you ever had something stolen? Your bike? Your laptop? Some money? It felt like a violation, didn’t it? It hurt. Stealing hurts the person who is stolen from.
A second reason that you are commanded not to steal is that stealing hurts the stealer—it hurts us. When I was in my first year of undergrad, I remember reading Plato’s Republic. In one of Plato’s dialogues, he sets up a conversation where someone asks Socrates, “Is it ever to your advantage to be dishonest if, for instance, you knew that you would not be caught? For example, if you had the ring of Gyges, the magic ring that granted its owner the power to become invisible at will, would it ever be to your advantage to steal?” And Socrates in a very elaborate dialogue argues, “No, it is never in your advantage to steal, even if you know ahead of time that you will not get caught, because when you steal, you damage your own soul. It is never in your interest to damage your soul.”
If your life is like a character in a movie, do you want to be a character whose choices make your soul darker and darker?
Because stealing hurts our neighbour, the one we steal from, and us--it also hurts God. When we hurt our neighbour, we dishonour our neighbour’s Maker. When we hurt us, we dishonour our Maker. So stealing hurts our neighbour and us, and thus dishonours our Maker.
Some of you may be saying that this particular commandment is not one that I have a problem with. (Perhaps you think, “I never sereptitiously slid a Kit Kat into my pocket at the checkout stand at the grocery store.” You might think, “I would never even think about snatching a purse from an elderly lady standing at an intersection waiting for a traffic light to change. I don’t even steal towels or robes from the hotel. I don’t even take the little shampoos and conditioners from the hotel--which I think may be complimentary. Unlike 93% of Canadian parents, I don’t even steal candy from my kids Halloween bag.”
There are lots of different ways to steal today that are not quite so obvious. We can steal from our workplaces. People in older generations who felt the impact of the Great Depression and World War II, and the older baby boomers tend to work really hard—and in many cases were defined primarily by their work. People in younger Generations, members of Gen X (people who in mid-forties and to late twenties), members of Gen Y (people who are now 28 and younger) tend to put a fairly clear line between work and personal and recreational life and work and their family life—if they have a family, which in many ways is a very good thing. They felt their parents stole time from them and gave it to their companies. Younger people today are much more likely than older generations to say, “I live for the weekend,” meaning that work is simply a means to generate income so I can enjoy the weekend. We are much more likely as members of the Gen-X and members of the Gen-Y group, to hesitate to make any long-term commitment to a job. We are more likely to think, more than older generations, about what a company can do for us, rather than what we can do for the company.
Having a personal life-work life-family balance is a very good thing. I am not glorifying workaholism. But, if we don’t work hard while we work and produce quality work (and it’s possible to work hard while we work AND to have a personal life and family life, too), then we are stealing from our work places.
Part of what it means to not steal is to work hard and well while we work.
If we are students or if we write for our living, we can steal through plagiarism. The New York Times recently had an article entitled Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in the Digital Age. It is becoming more and more common, as we know, for students to simply copy paragraphs from the Internet and paste them into their papers without giving credit. We can steal by not attributing our sources in our school work or work-work.
In the Digital age, as I suggested earlier, today people can hack into other people’s computers and steal credit cards, calling cards, and software.
Some younger artists like the rock band Radiohead. They are OK if people download their music for free. They want you to video their music and post on YouTube without getting permission (knowing that if more people are exposed to their music more people will come to their concerts and buy their T-shirts). I know the laws regarding what you can digitally copy are still evolving, and, depending on your age, you’ll probably view the ethical issues differently here (and we don’t have time to get into an extended discussion of in this sermon). But since this is an issue relevant to so many of us, I would say let’s be mindful, prayerful, and seek integrity in our choices.
Our income tax protocols here in Canada are in part based on an honour system. If we cheat on our income tax, we are stealing from the government.
So the Eighth Commandment against stealing is broader than we think at first glance.
(Transition)
For every commandment that is stated in the negative in the Ten Commandments, there is a positive corollary. The positive corollary to this Eighth Commandment against stealing is to share what we have, to be generous. As stealing damages our soul, so living generously brings life to our soul.
As I said earlier, if we are working, part of the way we can give is by working hard while we work. Again, I am not suggesting by any means that we become workaholics, that we let our jobs take over our lives. Having a personal life, time for family and friends is very good. But I am saying part of what it means to honour God is by living generously, and part of what it means to live generously is to give our best while we work.
If we find ourselves with a job, which in our current economy is something we can be truly grateful for, if we are a follower of Jesus Christ, part of the way we honour the positive corollary of the Eighth Commandment, to not steal, is to give generously to God and to others.
In the book of Malachi, God is utterly transparent, like he’s in a lover’s quarrel with his people, “You have been unfaithful to me; you have turned away from me.”
And he says to his people, “Return to me, I will return to you.” But then his people ask, “How will we return?”
It is interesting that God’s first response isn’t to say “pray” or “sing” or get rid of your bad anger or your lust or sign up for Practicing the Presence.
God’s first response is to say, “Stop robbing me.”
In Malachi 3:8-10:
8 "Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
"But you ask, 'How are we robbing you?'
"In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
God says that when we his people don’t tithe, which means when we don’t bring the first tenth of our income to him, we are actually robbing God.
Have you ever thought of the fact that if you are stingy with your money, God regards you as a thief?
God calls us to bring our tithes as an expression of our love for him…
If we are faithful toward him in giving him our treasure, he knows our hearts and other things in our life will tend to follow. Jesus would later say in the Sermon on the Mount where your treasure is there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21). This is why when God says “return to me,” he speaks first not of prayer or worship in song, but of money.
When we give of our tithe, our first fruits, our hearts tend to follow.
Once in a while I will get an e-mail after I have mentioned tithing, and someone will say, “In the Old Testament it is really clear that God’s people should give away 10%, but in the New Testament that 10% requirement is not as clear.” The unstated implication in the email seems to be that—“you don’t actually think God requires us to give 10% of our income to him—do you?”
I usually respond by saying, “Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew (which of course is in the New Testament) did affirm the tithe. As teachers of the Bible have observed, part of the reason the tithing requirement isn’t laid out as clearly in the New Testament is because, first of all, it is assumed, and, second, we have received more of God’s truth and grace than Old Testament believers. As New Testament people we have received the benefits of Jesus Christ’s life and death on the cross for our sins. We have been given everything by God in Christ. So if we have been given much more grace than people in the Old Testament, then it makes sense that the tithing is not the maximum that we would aspire to, but the minimum starting point for Christian believers. It is this place of gratitude to God that makes us want to be generous in our giving toward God.
I believe that if we are really grateful to God for the things he has done for us, that gratitude will be expressed in our giving and in our financial choices.
I have three sisters. Two of my sisters, when they were younger, worked as waitresses in restaurants. One of those sisters is now an executive at a Silicon Valley high tech firm. In the past she has worked as the director for marketing for Walt Disney and before that as a producer for the US television network ABC. The other sister now works as professor at the University of California.
They both work hard in their jobs. But, both of them will tell you that among the hardest jobs they ever had was working as waitresses. I notice that when we go to a restaurant together, and if one of them picks up the tab--even the one who is very, very careful about she uses her money and is a master at getting the cheapest fights and the best deals on the Internet, she or the other sister always tips generously. They always give well beyond 10% because they have been waitresses. They know how hard a job that is, so they are grateful for the services that are offered to them in a restaurant. So they give generously.
Many of us who have never worked as a waiter or as a waitress in a restaurant, when we are served well in a restaurant, and particularly when we feel like we made a personal connection with a waiter or a waitress because we frequent that restaurant regularly, for us 10% is not the maximum, but it is the base minimum starting point (for some our minimum starting point is 15%). If we are really grateful for how someone has served us, then it will be reflected in our giving and we will give even more than what many people consider the standard minimum 10%. We will give beyond that.
So it is when we feel God has been generous to us: he has taken care of us; he has given us the capacity to work. He has blessed us so much through Jesus Christ. If we feel that in our heart, we won’t begrudge the 10% that God says is his, but we will want to give over and above the tithe as some kind of offering to his work.
There is a waiter in Vancouver my wife and I love. He takes really good care of us. When we express our gratitude to him through what we give, it’s a joy to give. And there is God, whom we love, and we love to express our gratitude to him in what we give. It’s a joy to give. Sometimes, when at a restaurant writing out the tip, I think, “God, you’ve served me so well, I want to be just as (proportionately) generous in my giving--if not more--to you.”
Giving is a gift—good for our soul.
In Luke 19, we read about the story of the Zacchaeus the tax collector.

If you are a tax collector today for Revenue Canada, you are not likely to advertise that at a party. But in Jesus’ day tax collectors were despised. They were seen as traitors--in bed with Rome. They would have been seen in the same way we see a drug lord who is collaborating with a huge drug cartel. So then why would anyone become a tax collector in Jesus’ day? Why would anyone choose a vocation that would stigmatize them as a social pariah? The money. Tax collectors in Jesus’ day were required to give Rome her share of money, but they then could charge people whatever amount they wanted to and pocket the rest. They were seen as thieves.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector and he was also a short man. He heard that Jesus was coming through town and wanted to see who Jesus was. He knew how despised he was as a tax collector, so he knew that no one would let him stand in front of them. He did something that would have been considered humiliating for a Hebrew man in his day. He did something that would have opened him up to utter ridicule. He climbed up a sycamore tree to get a better view of Jesus.

When Jesus reached the spot under the sycamore tree, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I'm coming to your house today."

Zacchaeus was stunned. "Who me?" "Is there anyone else in the tree?" Jesus may have said._ Zacchaeus was so overjoyed that Jesus chose him that at Zacchaeus' house afterwards he said, "Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."

Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham."

When salvation comes to you, when you have really been touched by God, one of the ways you know faith has "taken" over you, that the penny has dropped, is that you will find yourself giving generously to God and others. Unlike Zacchaeus, it may not giving away 50% (which by the way was higher than the law required), but it will at least be the first tenth.
If our heart has been touched by Jesus Christ the question will not be "how much must I give?" But rather, "how much can I give?" One of the clearest signs that salvation has come to our lives is that we have a new attitude toward giving.
When God touches us, we will also become generous with through sharing our other resources with people.
Last week I was meeting with my colleague Ken Pierce at his home who is senior level pastor of small group here. The reason we were meeting there was because Ken and Aisyah had ordered a big wrap-around couch. We were waiting for it to come from the BRICK. It arrived and Ken and I carried it from the truck across the front yard to his door, but let the pros take it up the stairs. Ken shared, just before they came, that he and Aisyah had sold most of their furniture for next to nothing in Georgia before they came to Vancouver and had committed to simplifying their lives and to not buy furniture here. But they found as part of their ministry at Tenth, they are having people over at their house two or three times a week. They really needed a couch. They had a reclining chair, but no proper couch.
When we give generously of money and resources, we experience this as a gift—if stealing is bad for our soul, giving is good. It’s no accident that miser and misery have the same root word. A generous person is a joyful person.
The positive corollary of the Eighth Commandment is by giving generously in our workplaces, by giving generously to God and others, and, third, and finally, by using our gifts and our creative talents to contribute to God’s world.
Paul in Ephesians 4:28 says these words:
28 Those who have been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.”
Paul says, “Those who have been stealing must steal no longer…: but the second part is also important. “The one who has been stealing… must also work doing something that is useful with his own hands.” He says, “After you stop stealing, you must work.” In this context, work does not necessarily mean that you get a job job, but you do something creative with your hands that enables you to contribute. It might be a hobby.
Rob, a pastor I went to school with, says stealing causes an adrenalin rush that is addicting (I shop lifted as a teenager largely because of the rush). Stealing is just like other addictions that cannot be instantly stopped. It is a process fighting an addiction. That is why the verse is so profound. You cannot just go through the same routine in life and just leave the stealing aspect out of it. You must add something to your life to replace it. Do something different with your hands, something that will give you a rush, too. If you think that stealing is a rush, try giving your stuff and money away. That’s even more of a rush. Part of what it means to live generously is to find creative ways to work with our hands or our brain or our feet, and to give our stuff away.
Earlier I mentioned that my generation Gen-X and the generation that follows, the Generation Ys, tend to make a clear separation between work life and personal life, work and family life. But, Generation-Xers and the Generation Yers also tend to be highly entrepreneurial. We can use our entrepreneurial gifts to bless people.
I just heard about Jonathan, now about 27 years old, who as a young person was very interested in making a difference for children. But he didn't know what to do with that desire. When he was in his early twenties he went on a missions trip to Mongolia. While they were in a village in Mongolia he noticed that a lot of children didn't go to school. So he started asking people in the village, “Why don't your kids go to school.” The answer was, "We can't afford to buy textbooks." Jonathan discovered that was the only reason they didn't go to school. He also discovered that it only cost a student $20 a year for their textbooks. Jonathan was in his early 20s at the time and came back to North America to his university campus. He put up a table with a sign that simply said "change the world for $20." He began his own non-profit organization to enable kids in Mongolia to go to school by providing them textbooks. And it took off like wildfire. Last year they were able to send 3000 Mongolia kids to school because of the money they raised. Jonathan is now living in Mongolia—facing the frigid winters-- and he is working with the local government and the Department of Education to facilitate teacher training there. He is using his gifts to make a difference.
We can obey the positive corollary for the commandment against stealing by giving generously to God and people.
So how do we become people who honour this commandment? This may sound like one of those old broken records, but we are able to honour the Eighth Commandment in the same way we are able to honour the Seventh and the Sixth; that is, by putting the First Commandment first. It is as we put God first, have no god but God, and say, “LORD, you are first in my life,” and we invite Jesus Christ to be the centre of our heart.
When Christ is truly at the centre of our lives as we said last week, we will become more conscious of him… and more grateful for how generous he’s been to us.
Paul describes this generosity of Jesus Christ to us in 2 Corinthians 8:9.
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Jesus had infinite wealth, wealth that surpassed the combined wealth of Bill Gates, Jimmy Pattison, and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. If he had hung on to his wealth, we would have died in spiritual poverty. If he clung to his riches, we would have died poor. If he died poor on the cross, we could become infinitely rich; our sins could be forgiven, and the door would be open for us to be adopted into God’s family. And this is what he did for us..
When we understand that Jesus gave up all his treasure in heaven in order to make us his treasure, then we will find ourselves able and wanting to live generously, too.
To the extent that Christ is the centre of our heart and to the extent we are filled with his Holy Spirit, to the extent that we appreciate all that he has done for us, we will become generous people: with our money, our resources, and talents.
As we prepare to come to the table in just a moment, let’s pray:
We thank you, LORD, that though you were rich, you became poor for our sake so that through your poverty we might become rich
Freely, freely, we have received. Help us now to freely, freely give.