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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
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Joseph
Slife,
lay leader July 20,
2003 That
game is called "Trust." If you're
the guy -- or gal -- falling
backward, you have to trust that
the person behind you is going to
catch you, so you don't hit the
ground. You
have to trust that he or she is
strong enough -- and alert enough
-- that when you go off balance
and have no way to rescue
yourself, that person is going to
step in and save the
day. Now,
if you don't trust the person,
you're not going let go and fall.
Or at the very least, you're
going to have your hands poised
to break your fall. Well,
"trust" is what I want to talk
about today, specifically about
trusting God -- and about at
least one of the ways we show
whether we really trust God or
not. Jesus
speaks to this issue in the
Sermon on the Mount -- Matthew
chapter 6. A familiar passage to
many of us. Let's start in verse
19. Jesus
is talking here about where we
live, isn't He? I'm mean, how
many of you have worried this
week about something -- how
you're going to afford this or
that or maybe about the future of
your job? The
reason we tend to worry is that
we're just not sure God is going
to be there to catch us. "God I
know you're big and strong --
that's not the issue -- but I'm
just a little bit concerned that
you don't know my address. I'm a
little bit concerned that if I
fall, it's going to happen at a
time when you're so involved
dealing with some world crisis or
helping out Billy Graham or
numbering the stars in the
universe , and I am going to hit
the ground hard." And
Jesus is saying here -- "Time
out. Think of who you're talking
about. Your heavenly Father. He's
not just powerful. He has a
father's heart -- in the very
best sense of the term. He not
only has the power beyond
measure, He has the love, the
care, the concern, to take care
of what you need." Now,
the question for us is this: Do
we really believe that? Or is
what Jesus is saying here just
words on a page to us? And
if we do believe what He is
saying, how do we act on
it? In
some ways, what I'm talking to
you about today is part two of
the sermon I had the opportunity
to bring to you last summer
called, "God
and Your
Stuff." And
the main point of that sermon was
this: Money -- and that includes
the stuff money can buy -- is a
spiritual issue.
Money isn't just about
money. In
that sermon, I quoted from King
David in 1 Chronicles 29:11. In
that verse, he is praying and he
says: Now,
this word translated "everything"
means "everything." That includes
the money in your wallet, in your
bank account, in your retirement
fund. It includes your house,
your car, your boat, if you have
one. It's not really yours at
all. It belongs to God.
Everything in the heavens and
earth -- even if you've worked
for it and paid for it -- is
His. After
all, the Bible says He is the One
who's given us the power to make
wealth in the first place. He's
the One who puts breath in our
bodies and give health to our
frame. He owns the capital, the
means of production, and the
workforce. It's all his, lock,
stock, and barrel. Now,
if that's true -- and it is --
then every financial decision
that you make is a spiritual
decision, because you're making a
decision about what belongs to
God. You
and I are not given the
responsibility of being owners.
We are given the responsibility
-- and the privilege -- of being
stewards. A steward is one who
manages another's property. We
manage what belongs to God; we
are God's stewards. Back
to our text for today: "Do not
store up treasures for yourself
on earth." What Jesus is warning
against is the mentality of
ownership. How
many of you have read The
Screwtape Letters by C.S.
Lewis. It's a fiction book a
senior demon writing to a junior
demon, teaching him about the
ways of deception that can
destroy people's lives.
Well,
the person the junior demon is
assigned happens to become a
Christian -- a disaster, as far
as the demons are concerned, but
the senior demon says all is not
lost. There are a ways to
undermine this new Christian. And
one of them is this sense of
ownership. Here's what the senior
demon writes: Whew!
I think Dr. Lewis is showing a
lot of insight into one of the
schemes of the devil -- a very
successful scheme to get people,
even Christians, to think of
themselves as owners. But
Jesus says that if you and I fall
for the idea that we're owners,
we're going to end up with
nothing but a bunch of moth holes
and rust. But we if we accept our
role as stewards and invest in
the Kingdom, our treasure will be
secure. In
his book, The Treasure
Principle, Randy Alcorn puts
it this way. He says, "You can't
take it with you, but you sure
can send it on ahead." In
verse 24, Jesus says that if you
try to act as an owner rather
than a steward, you're going to
end up serving stuff rather than
serving God. You can't serve
both. "You cannot serve both God
and Money." Now,
Jesus knew what was going through
the people's minds when they
heard him say these things. I'll
put in a 21st century American
context: "Hey, Jesus, man, I
gotta serve money. You don't
understand. I gotta mortgage
payment, a car payment, a home
equity line. I've got kids
heading to college. Jesus, have
you seen the cost of college
lately?" First
word of verse 25: "Therefore."
That means what He's about to say
relates to what He just said.
What He just said is: "Your heart
will always be where your
treasure is" and "You cannot
serve both God and
Money." "Therefore"
-- what? -- verse 25 -- "I tell
you, do not worry about your
life, what you will eat or drink,
about your body, what you will
wear." Don't worry. Focus your
treasure on the Kingdom, serve
God and not money, and don't
worry. Be happy. And
he gives two reasons not to
worry. First reason, verse 27--
it doesn't do any good. "Who of
you by worrying can add a single
hour to his life?" Not a bad
reason, but the second one is a
lot better. Second
reason, verse 30 -- God, the
Sovereign God of the universe who
spoke worlds into existence, who
stretched out the heavens, who
has a Father's heart -- has
pledged Himself to take care of
you. He
can be trusted. When you don't
trust Him, Jesus says in verse
32, you act like the pagans --
nonbelievers. To them, the true
and living God is not part of the
equation, so no wonder they worry
about where the money is going to
come from and how they're going
to make it. But
to us who follow Christ, Jesus
says, "Hey. Calm down. Cool your
boosters. Take a chill pill.
You're heavenly Father knows you
need certain things to live.
He'll see to it that you get what
you need." Now,
I don't think Jesus is saying
that the Father will necessarily
give you everything you want.
Don't go out and buy a
half-million dollar house and
expect God to send an angel
around to slide the mortgage
payment under the door every
month. But
if you trust Him, He will give
you what you need. Now,
look at the first word of verse
33 -- "But." This a word of
contrast. On the one hand the
pagans run after -- or they focus
on, they live for -- all the
material things of life. "But" --
the contrast -- what we are to do
is focus, to run after, to live
for God's Kingdom and His
righteousness." And when we do,
all the other stuff that we could
worry about will be taken care
of. God will see to it that we
have what we need. This
sermon is titled, "First Things
First." It comes from verse 33 --
"Seek first His Kingdom and His
righteousness." Seek first. Jesus
says, make this your top
priority. How
do we seek God's righteousness?
The Bible is clear that
righteousness comes by faith --
it comes by trusting God. We seek
His righteousness by living lives
of faith. We
seek the Kingdom by investing
ourselves in it -- by faith,
that's where we're going to store
our treasures. Our time, our
talent, our money -- that all
belong to God anyway. OK,
now down the nitty gritty and the
practical. God already knows
whether or not we trust Him,
whether or not we're ready and
willing to live lives of faith
focused on the
Kingdom. But
how do we know it?
It's easy for us to fool
ourselves. We can say that we
trust God -- but all too often,
when it come right down to it,
we're not sure enough to fold our
arms, close our eyes, and fall
backward, trusting that He's
going to catch us. How
do we know if we really trust
Him? How do we not fool
ourselves? Well,
God's given us a way -- and let
me give you discomfort alert.
What I'm about to say my very
well send chills through your
body. One
specific way God has given us so
that we know we trust Him is
called -- tithing. You can read
about it in several places in the
Bible, notably Malachi, chapter
3. "Tithe" is a word that simply
means "a tenth part." Let
me illustrate it for you. You see
this ten dollars. It's God's
money, right. He owns it. He's
entrusted it to me, but it's
really His. "Lord,
you know I do." "Then
give me one of those dollars
back." "Lord,
it's all yours anyway. You
want just one one?" "Just
one." "What
about the other
nine?" "You
can keep 'em." "Really?
Well, don't you think I at
least ought to give you
two." "If
you want to give me two, give
me two. But all I'm asking for
is one." Now,
let me ask you. If I gave you ten
bucks -- free and clear -- and
asked for one back, you'd
probably say, "Oh.
Sure." Good
deal for you, huh? You get to
keep 90 percent. And that's the
deal God makes with us. It's all
His, but He says to us, "Trust
Me. If you give me back one out
of the ten -- and they all belong
to me anyway -- I'll see that you
get everything you
need." Now,
this isn't bribing God. You can't
bribe God with His own money.
It's is a sign of
trust. I
have an article here from the
Los Angeles Times -- from
about a month ago -- that says
"among born-again Christians,
[only] 6 percent tithed
last year." That's about one
person out of every
17. This
not about legalism, it's not
about guilt, it's not about
pumping people for money. It's
about trust. In
fact, in Malachi 3 God says this
is the one area where He doesn't
mind being put to the test.
Malachi 3:10 (New Living
Translation): "But
God, I need ten dollars. If I
give you back one, I won't have
enough." Jesus
says, "O ye of little faith.
You've got a heavenly Father who
knows what you need. Just trust
Him." Andy
Hines has a great expression. He
says, "Sometimes the will of God
doesn't add up on a spreadsheet."
That's good. That's true. If it
did always add up, you wouldn't
need to trust Him, would
you? Now
there might be some other things
you need to do. Maybe you've
gotten yourself in a financial
mess because of some bad
decisions, or because the economy
tanked, or you just went wild
with a credit card. So there may
be practical steps you need to
take to improve your financial
situation. That's
part of being a good steward,
too. Y'know,
I'm convinced that this whole
area of stewardship -- not just
giving, but everything related to
managing what God entrusts to us
-- is a key, and often overlooked
area of Christian discipleship.
Did you know that there are more
than two-thousand verses in the
Bible that have to do with money.
In fact, Jesus talked more about
money than about heaven and hell
combined. Why?
Because this is where we live. I
mean, we don't lie in bed at
night -- most us don't --
wondering about the exact timing
of the tribulation with respect
to when the rapture occurs. But
we do lie awake concerned about
money. You
may not be aware of this, but
we've launched a small-group
ministry here that focuses on
what the Bible says about
managing God's stuff. It's the
Crown Financial Ministries study,
and we had our first Crown group
earlier this year, and our second
one is starting next month.
Eleven weeks -- meeting together
with a small group of others --
to talk about some of these more
than two-thousand verses and what
the implications are for the way
we live. The
study covers investing, working,
spending, giving, getting good
counsel -- all the things that
can help you be a good and
faithful steward of what God's
given you. If you want to take
part in that, you need to speak
up soon, because they are only a
few openings. Susan
Phillips and Alex Tsou will be
leading that group, so if you
want to be a part, let 'em know.
If we run out of slots, you can
in the next group that'll start
in January. Well,
let me show you a quick scene
from a movie that illustrates the
main point I want you to remember
today -- and that point is this:
you'll never know the joy of God
catching you until you're willing
to fall. You'll
never know the joy of seeing God
make provision until you're
willing to take a step of
faith. This
is from Indiana Jones and the
Last Crusade. Indy's father's
been shot by the bad guys and
isn't going to live much longer,
unless Indy can figure out the
path the an area of a cave that
contains the Holy Grail, the
communion cup that Jesus and the
disciples used at the Last
Supper. In the film, the cup has
healing powers. And
Indy's doing OK until he gets to
the great abyss. His guidebook
says to walk across -- bit there
doesn't seem to be any way. Let's
watch it. When
I watch that, I'm reminded of the
song: "God will make a way where
there seems to be no way. He
works in ways we cannot see. He
will make a way for
me." Friends,
that's the way it is with giving
God his dollar back -- or his
thousand dollars or ten thousand.
It is human nature to say, "But
there's no way. I'm gonna fall
and it's a long way
down." And
God simply says, "Do you trust
me? Will you seek Me first? Will
you live a life of
faith?" The
songs we've sung today are all
about this: "Pressing
onward, pushing every
hindrance aside" -- including
the sense of ownership --
"'cause I want to know you
more." "Lord,
you are more precious than
silver.... nothing I desire
compares with you." And
our closing hymn today --
listen for these words: "thou
and thou only, first in my
heart." Seek
first His Kingdom, and His
righteousness. Trust Him. Take
the step of faith. The
LORD God Almighty will not only
catch you, he'll not only make a
bridge for you to walk across,
He'll open the windows of heaven
for you. Try it. Let Him prove it
to you. *One
illustration in this sermon is
adapted
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
First
things first*
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
How
many of you have ever played that
game where one person has to
close his eyes, fold his arms
over his chest, and fall backward
into the arms of another
person?
God
owns it all
The
temptation of
'ownership'"The
sense of ownership, in
general, is always to be
encouraged. The humans are
always putting up claims to
ownership, which sound equally
funny in Heaven and in hell.
And we must keep them doing
so. And all the time, the joke
is that the word 'mine,' in
its fully possessive sense,
cannot be uttered by a human
being about anything.... At
present, the enemy [that's
God] says 'mine' of
everything based on the fact
the He made it. Our father
[the devil] hopes that
in the end, he'll be able to
say 'mine' of all things on
the...ground of
conquest."
A
call to trust
Our
top priority
A
sign of trustAnd
He says, "Joseph, do you trust
Me?"
"Bring
all the tithes into the
storehouse so there will be
enough food in my Temple. If
you do," says the LORD
Almighty, "I will open the
windows of heaven for you. I
will pour out a blessing so
great you won't have enough
room to take it in! Try it!
Let me prove it to
you!"
Overall
stewardship
Here's
the point(video
clip)
"Jesus
calls us from the worship of
vain world's golden
store..."
Supporting
texts: 1
Chronicles
29:11
| Malachi
3:10
A
mp3 audio file of this sermon is
here.
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An
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available
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only).
Request
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office.
Please specify tape number
030720a: First Things
First.
©
2003 Joseph Slife
from a sermon of the same title
by Andy Stanley
of NorthPoint Community Church in
Alpharetta,
Georgia.