Broadway Christian Church ·Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship ·April 24, 2005

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Prayer of the Day

Creator God, we have no words that can express your power and our awe!  You are, in fact, the ground of all that is!  We humbly come this day to adore you!  Blessing, honor, and glory be yours, forever and ever!  Amen.

Scripture
Luke 12:32-34

Do not be afraid, little flock – my little group of disciples – for your Father, your Mother, your Creator has been pleased – has gladly chosen – to give you the kingdom.  So, sell your possessions, give to charity, give to the poor, give to the needs of others.  Provide purses – wallets, money belts, places to keep your money – for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure – an account – in heaven that is unfailing, that will not be exhausted, that you cannot lose, where thieves cannot steal, nor moths nor anything else can destroy.  For where your money – your financial resources, your treasure – is, there your heart will be also.

Message
Magnify God with Money
Rick Frost

There were a lot of things I thought about sharing with you today.  Stewardship, of course, is one of the favorite topics at this time of the church year, and it is just amazing.  I thought about talking about what we’d like to do and all the things we can do if we could, but I decided, instead, I wanted to offer this Sunday’s sermon as a teaching sermon.  I decided Jesus’ words, remembered by Luke, have something very, very important to teach those of us who believe and anyone else who is able and willing to listen.

I decided I wanted to visit with you today about worship.  That’s right.  Worship!  If I had a video screen today, I would project before your eyes a verse or a thought to memorize.  The scholars say, “The inner essence of worship is the treasuring of God as infinitely valuable above everything else.”  Wow!  What a thought.  Repeat is after me, a phrase at a time.

“The inner essence of worship…

“is the treasuring of God…

“as infinitely valuable above everything else.”

That’s worship!  That’s the inner core of worship.  That’s what worship is for those of us in the Christian faith.

Now, the outer forms of worship are the things we do.  Those are the acts we do that show how much we treasure God.  Do you see where this is going?  What that means, I think, is that biblically and theologically, as people of faith, all of life, not just what we do around here on Sundays, not what we do in our quiet times privately, not that little secret place where we may go, not that spiritual side of us, not that long list of volunteer activities and wonderful things many of us do, but ALL OF LIFE is meant to be worship.

What an idea!  What a novel idea.  Paul put it this way, “It doesn’t matter what you are doing, whether you are eating, drinking, or anything else that you do, always do it to the honor, to the glory, to show how valuable God is to you” (I Corinthians 10).

I can’t even begin to tell you how awesome that is, at my tender age, to begin to hear that, to begin to get that idea.  I only wish I had learned this so many years ago, in my formative years.  But that’s another story.

Folks, as we all know, money and things are a big, big part of our lives.  Those things compete for our attention like nothing else in this world.  And therefore, God intends for money and things to be a part of worship, and the reason is because all of life, not just bits and pieces, but all of life is to be worship.  All of life is to show how valuable God is to you.

So, the way you and I worship God with our money and with our things is…

• We have to get them.
• We are called to use them.
• We are called to offer them, to give them in ways that show how much we treasure God, not how much we treasure money, but how much we treasure God.

That is what this text is about.  This is what stewardship is about.  This is what your pledge and my pledge are about.  It’s not about what we need.  It’s not about what we can do.  It’s about worship.

Now, we do a lot of things around here on Sunday morning, and we try to get that all jammed in an amazingly short time.  We call it worship, and rightly so.  When we are at our best, we find ourselves doing our best to show God how valuable God is to us, whether it’s singing, or praying, or listening, or preaching, or helping, or welcoming, or taking our place at the Lord’s Table, or whatever we are able to do.

One of those acts that comes right near the middle of our time spent with God together is called the offering.  That is the place and time when we Christians worship, we show God how valuable God is.  The way we do that is with our money.  We open our hands.  We write our checks.  We hand it over.  We put it in the ministry and mission of Jesus Christ.

Folks, here is a biblical principle.  Here is a spiritual truth you can bank on.  It’s one of those best-kept secrets in the world.  You and I worship with our money every single day.  We worship by the way we earn it, by the way we spend it, by the way we save it, and by the way we give it.  Our text today lays that out beautifully for us, and I ask you take a look at it with me.

Let’s start with verse 32.  Jesus said, “Do not be afraid.”

Let’s just come right out and talk about it.  OK?  “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Creator has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.”

Point Number 1:

When it comes to money and things… when it comes to having enough… when it comes to dealing with the thing that scares us the most… what is it?  It’s always about whether we are going to have enough, whether we are going to be OK.  One of the problems with fear is that when we are afraid, whether we like it or not, it speaks volumes to us personally in our hearts.  It speaks volumes to our family and friends and to those who know us intimately and closely.  It speaks volumes to the world around us that’s watching when our fear is operative.  It controls, and it communicates.  Try as we will to hide it, it communicates.

By the same token, when we are not afraid, our actions also speak volumes.  Being fearless when it comes to money and things magnifies, glorifies, and honors God for us and for everybody else connected with us.  It is there for everybody to see who is willing to watch.  It says, “Here is how much I treasure God.”

In other words, confronting our fears about our security, not being afraid, is an amazing, beautiful, powerful, meaningful act of worship.  “Do not be afraid little flock.  It’s your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

How is that?  When we are not afraid, it shows.  It shows, and it comes across.  It tells the world that we treasure God as a shepherd.  “Be not afraid little flock.”  The one who takes care of us, of course, is the shepherd.  The old Twenty-Third Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd.  I shall not want.  I shall not lack anything that I really need.”  That is how it really translates.  Not being afraid magnifies, and glorifies, and honors God and the Lord as our shepherd.

Point Number 2:

Not being afraid shows that we treasure God as Father, as Mother, as Creator, as a heavenly parent, whatever image or phrase works best for you.  It’s not to say we are just part of a flock.  We’re not just disciples of Jesus.  Biblically, we all know that we are God’s children.  We are like family.  God cares for us, as Scripture says, “more than a mother or a father cares for a child.”  That means that God knows what we need.  And God is working with us, and for us, and through us to be sure we have what we need.  Not necessarily by our definition of need, but by God’s definition of need.

Point Number 3:

Not being afraid shows that we treasure God as Lord, as Sovereign, as Leader, and as the only source of real power and wealth in this universe.  God, and God alone, has the power and ability to give us the kingdom.  We know the kingdom to be about life, about good life, about life now and about life eternally, which leads to number 4.

Point Number 4:

Not being afraid shows the world how free and how generous God is.  “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Creator has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.”  God gives the kingdom.  God doesn’t sell the kingdom.  God doesn’t rent the kingdom.  God doesn’t lease the kingdom.  God gives the kingdom.  God has all the wealth there is.  God has everything.  God does not need our money.  God does not need our payments.  Everything already belongs to God.  Anything we give back is already God’s.  It’s what is going on with us inside.  That’s the difference.  That is what the world doesn’t understand.  “What do you have,” says Paul, “that you haven’t received?  Name one thing.  Name one thing that you have that you have not received” (I Corinthians 4).

Now, God doesn’t just have everything.  God is incredibly generous and free with all of God’s bounty, and that is precisely how we magnify.  That is how we glorify.  That is how we communicate to a misguided and confused world about the Creator of all that is.  When we are not afraid… when we trust God with what we really need for life now and life eternally… good things start to happen.

Point Number 5:

Finally, not being afraid shows that we treasure God, not only as free and generous, but also as happy and joyful.  “Be not afraid, little flock, for God has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.”  Folks, it pleases God to give.  God wants to give you, and me, and whomever the kingdom.  It makes God glad to give.

Now from a personal experience, and from talking to some of you, not all of us had mothers and fathers who loved to give us things.  We didn’t all have mothers and fathers who were made happy by giving instead of getting, but that doesn’t matter now.  What matters now is that by faith and the reconciling work of Jesus Christ, we have a heavenly father.  We have a heavenly mother.  We have a creator of all that is who is just tickled pink, who is just pleased, who is glad to give you the kingdom.  Life now, and life forever, and everything that you and I need to get from where we are today to where God wants us to be.

This is key.  This is foundational to what Jesus says next in verse 33.  This is powerful.  Are you ready for this?  Jesus says, “Sell your possessions.”

We were going to put that on a sign in the front of the church and see how that did as an attractor.  Sell your possessions.  Give it to the poor.  Give it to charity.  Give it to the people who need it.  Give it to people who don’t have things.  Who is Jesus talking to?  Is he talking to the whole world?  Is he talking to the government?  Is he talking to this community?  No.  Jesus is talking to his disciples.  Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Sell your possessions.”  Wow!  These were folks, by and large, who didn’t have much.  They were just fishermen and workers.  They weren’t wealthy.  To his disciples, he said, “Sell your possessions.” 

Do you remember how he encountered that rich, young ruler along time ago?  Do you remember that guy?  He was trying to figure out how to purchase a ticket to heaven.  He was trying to cover the bases.  I know people like this.  They are so used to purchasing just about anything they want.  They want to know what do I have to give in order to get?  Jesus said to that particular person, “Go and sell everything.”  That was the hook, wasn’t it?  That was his problem.  “Your money is not going to get it with me.  Go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and here’s what you get.  You will get treasure in heaven.  And when you do that, not before, when you do that, come follow me.”

When Jesus encountered a guy named Zacchaeus, the slimy, little tax collector who made a fortune putting the screws to other people, it was different.  Zacchaeus met Jesus, and he said, “Lord, look.  I have given half of my possessions, not all of them.  I’ve given half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody (yeah, if he’s cheated anybody), I’ll pay them back four times the amount.”

In Acts 4, it says, “Barnabas, a disciple, sold a field that he owned, and he brought the money, and he laid it at the apostle’s feet.”  He sold at least one of his possessions.

Jesus didn’t say how much to sell.  He just said, “Sell your possessions.”  Why?  You know what?  If you don’t have a cash flow, and you can’t write a check, sell something.  Give.  Do whatever you have to do to give.  Just give.

What do we do with the money?  We use our money to show our love for two different kinds of people.  First of all, they are all poor.  There are people in this world who are poor, and who do not have the bare necessities of life.  That is one place that money needs to go.  But that’s not the only place, because you also know, in the Bible, there are those who are poor in spirit.  I know people who have lots and lots of things, and yet have zero.  They are poor in spirit.  When we sell our possessions, when we do give things, we are supposed to do that for the poor people who have few things, not even the basic necessities, and we are to do that for the people who are spiritually poor.  There is a huge number of them.  We learned about them last week.  Didn’t we?  We do not have time today to talk about them, but that is why we give.  That is how we do it.

There is a powerful impulse.  There’s no question about it.  In the Christian life there is a powerful impulse that moves us from accumulating things to simplifying our lives.  That impulse comes from treasuring God as infinitely valuable above everything else.

There are two reasons to simplify.  Jesus said, you know, it’s really fairly hard for a rich person to go to heaven.  The word “rich” translates to “a person who has a lot of stuff – who has a lot of things.”  It’s hard for a person who has a lot of things to go to heaven, and the reason is that stuff just gets in the way.  It causes folks to spend enormous amounts of their time and effort away from things that really matter.  And it seduces people into thinking and believing that somehow, you know, I have it all covered.  I’m self-sufficient.  I’m independent.  I don’t need God.  I don’t need anything. 

The other reason is that when we simplify, rather than accumulate, when we sell things and give the proceeds to the purposes of God, we are worshipping.  We’re treasuring God above everything in a culture that has simply forgotten it, if they ever knew it.  We are showing that culture, the people who are watching us all of the time, that God is real, that God is precious, that God is God, and we are not.  Neither is anybody else or anything else.

Well… There is a lot more, but let me finish with this for today.  Here’s a fact.  You heart moves toward what you cherish and what you love, what you want more than anything else in the world.  It’s not that it might do that.  It is a fact.  Here is a spiritual truth you can bank on.  God, the Creator of all that is, wants you, wants your love, wants you as a person.  Jesus said, “I have a secret.  Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart is going to be.”

That isn’t a nice thought or idea.  It’s just a truth, a reality.  And if you want to know where your heart really is, don’t look at your calendar.  Don’t look at your work.   Don’t look at your family.  Don’t look in the mirror.  Don’t look at that long list of wonderful volunteer activities you’re doing.  If you want to know… if you really, truthfully have the guts to know the truth about where you heart is… get out your check registry.  Pull up your portfolio.   Open your safety deposit box.  Take a hard look at your 1040.  That’s where it is.  Your heart and your money are in the same place.  That’s a spiritual truth, and it has never changed.  Try as we will to separate money from heart, it cannot be done. 

It’s all about worship.  It’s all about what you and I treasure beyond anything.  Around here, we call it the offering.  I love the way we do the offering here.  We have our people stand up and share, and that is wonderful.  Then we pass the plates, and regardless of the amount – the widow’s mite or the millionaire’s thousands – with my offering I declare to God, and to you, and to everybody else that is watching that I treasure God as infinitely valuable above everything else.  I choose to simplify, so that I can help give to others.  Since my treasure is in heaven, I believe that with all of my heart, that is where I am going to go. 

Let it be, Lord.  Let it be.

And we all say together… “Amen.”

Benediction

Sweet Spirit of Surrender, help us to let go of our fears, to move toward simplicity in all we do, and to count your kingdom as our greatest inheritance.  Move our hearts to treasure you.  Amen.