Laying up our treasure in heaven (5/12/19)
ATTN: You’ve heard the story, so I will go straight to the point. Today, I will be as practical as possible. Three takeaways from the stories.
- Don’t serve money; rather serve God with money. II. It’s God’s money and not ours. III. We will be measured by how much we have given away; and not how much we have kept.
- Don’t serve money; rather serve God with money.
- How do you know you are serving money?
1) When your major decisions are based on money. You automatically follow the job that will pay you the most money, for example. Or you select your college major based on what will earn you the most money with the least amount of effort. In other words, you ask yourself, “Based on what i can do and what I like to do, what will earn me the most money?’ You are serving money because you are making important decisions that will shape your life based on money. Think about a servant. A servant slavishly does whatever the master tells him. Now think about our relationship with money. We are servants of money when we slavishly follow money – whoever will pay us the most or what job will give us the greatest benefits, I will follow…
Warning: We naively and mistakenly think more is better. We think since we are happier with $100 than with $10, we think having $1 million will be better than having $100,000. It doesn’t work that way. Money not only has diminishing return as it goes up (in amount) but actually has reverse-return as it goes up. The more you have, the unhappier you might be, in fact. More on this later.
2) When you don’t think you can tithe because you make so little. So, you think, you will start tithing when you start making real money. I’d say you are serving money because you can’t part with it.
I know the logic seems to make sense. “I have so little, so I need to spend it on me and my family. But when I have more, then I will give toward God and others.” But the real logic works this way: If you won’t give $100 when you make $1000, what makes you think you will give $10,000 when you make $100,000? You have become enslaved to it.
3) When you keep thinking “if you only had more money, you will be happier.” this shows that we are enslaved by money because we think it’s the source of our happiness.
ILL: Money is like food in our stomach. There is a proper amount that is good for our stomach and body. If too little food, we get hungry and we might steal. If too much food, we get fat and lazy. Money is like that. Just the proper amount is good. Too little, we might steal. Too much, we will get spiritual fat and lazy. Proverbs 30:7-9 give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9
lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”
What a wise prayer! If we are honest, aren’t we all like, “God, make me rich and I will give away a lot of it?” That’s because we do not know our wicked heart and if God doesn’t answer that prayer, it’s because He loves us and He doesn’t want us to ruin ourselves.
Be content with what you have. Just a little more won’t get you in better places….
- How do we serve God with money?
1) Start with tithing. Should Christians tithe? We know it was an old testament law, but didn’t Jesus fulfill the law and so we no longer have to keep it? Listen to Jesus: “You tithe even your spices,” he said to the Pharisees. “That’s right. You should. But you have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Matthew 23:23).
In other words, for Christians, tithing – giving 10% of what we earn – is the start. We should do much more. Hey high schoolers, say, you made $150 working at Mcdonald’s? Give $15 to God. Don’t think, “It’s just $15? How far will that go?” God looks at the heart. What we give out of poverty matters more to God than when we give out of riches.
Faith is in operation when we start doing what does not make sense in our heads.
ILL: I Know a student at our church who told me that because he decided to sponsor a Thai-child, he couldn’t go on the ski trip. That’s real giving.
2) Give to the poor. Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
“That’s not talking to me because I’m not rich.” If you make $40,000 a year, you are in the top 2% of the world’s wealthy. So, whenever the Bible mentions rich people, it’s referring to you and me!
3) Give toward worthy causes that build up the kingdom. Do this with your children. Oh, about 10 years ago, we selected a child from indonesia to sponsor through compassion international. We looked for a girl who had the same birthday as our daughter sennah soon after she was born. Janet writes to her and they been exchanging letters all these years. She’s a teenager now and all grown up. Just $35 a month. That’s two movies and a popcorn…
- It’s God’s money and not ours. (we are stewards)
We are all going to have to give it all back. That was the whole point of the parable of the talents. A talent is a large sum of money. Who gives the servants the money in the beginning? The master. And what does the master look at? How much the servants have produced at the end to give BACK to the master. It was the master’s money in the beginning and it’s the master’s money in the end.
Everything you have – your talent, time and treasure – are borrowed to you for the time being and you are going to give them all back.
ILL: When I was in college, I went to a conference and at the end, they gave each student $10 and told us that we had to spend it on something good and we had one hour to do so. I teamed up with another person and found a homeless person and we treated him to a nice lunch. It was real easy because it wasn’t our money and we felt really good. Our money, all of it, is not ours. God gave it to us for the time being and he wants us to spend it on something good other than ourselves and we are given 40, 60, 80 or 20 years to do so.
We are not going to take any of it with us. A billionaire and a homeless person end their lives with exact same account balance – $0. 1 tim 6:&-12 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and[a] we cannot take anything out of the world.”
– in this vein, Tithing is God letting us keep 90% of HIS money!
III. We will be measured by how much we’ve given away and not how much we’ve kept.
The master in the talent story demands a return for his investment. And those who worked hard at using their talents and producing more were rewarded. In other words, we are to use our talents and treasures for the good of others rather than hoarding it. The one who hoarded it and buried it was judged harshly.
“He who dies with the most toys wins”, malcolm Forbes said. As Christians, we don’t ascribe to that. But we often live like that’s true! We try to accumulate as much as possible without ever thinking whether it’s even good for us. Rather, lay up your treasure in heaven. How do we do it? Again, start with tithing, giving to the poor and giving to worthy causes.
And we will be in the end measured by it. Randy Alcorn said, “God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.”
CONC: If this talk about money was uncomfortable, it was for your freedom. Jesus talked about money more than heaven and hell combined. Why? Because he wants us to be freed from it and trust God for provision rather than what our hands can gather. Lay up your treasure in heaven, As One, for your own joy and the joys of others.
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