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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Joseph
Slife, Lay Leader August
11, 2002 Don't
tell me what you think it looks
like yet. Just look at it for a
moment. How
many of you look at this and see
a representation of the face of
Jesus? A few of you. No
drawing to look at -- just some
questions. You young folks can
sit this one out. This is for the
adults. Okay,
adults --first question: How many
of you used to be children? If
you were a child once upon a
time, raise your hand. I think
that's pretty much
everybody. Now,
do you remember you mom or dad
ever saying to you things like
this: "Pick that up!" "Put that
down!" "Don't touch that!" "Clean
up your room." And, of course,
"No, you can't stay up until ten
o'clock"? If
you were like most children, at
the time you probably were
thinking things like: "It doesn't
look dirty to me;" or "Why should
I put my clothes away -- I'm just
going to get the out again;" and
"Why can't I stay up
late?" Now,
how many of you former children
are now parents? I know some of
you have children who have
already grown up and moved away.
But as parents, we tend to find
ourselves saying to our children
the same thing our parents said
to us. "Pick that up!" "Put that
down." "Clean your room." "No,
you can't stay up!" As
a child, you probably thought
your parents were being
unreasonable. But as a parent,
you want to protect your
children, you want them to be
healthy, you want their rooms to
be at least clean enough that the
state Environmental Protection
Division doesn't put your house
in quarantine! Now
that you're a parent, your
perspective has changed. You just
see things differently as an
adult than you did as a
child. That
picture I showed you -- most
people can't figure it out at
first. But when you begin to look
at it another way, the face of
Jesus becomes quite
apparent. Now,
what I've described to you
through these two simple examples
-- the picture and the
parent/child contrast -- is the
goal of most if not all preaching
and teaching in the church. The
goal is to change your
perspective and mine, so that we
begin to see things not from our
natural point of view, but from
God's supernatural point of
view. Indeed,
the goal is that God's point of
view becomes our
point of view; that our thinking
would, more and more, be in
alignment with His
thinking. This,
you'll recall, was the whole
point of Pastor Jerry's
sermon
from two weeks ago on healing --
what we tend to
think
vs. what God has
said
about healing. So
the goal of preaching and
teaching in the church is that in
one matter after another -- life
and death, good and evil, sin and
holiness -- we would set aside
any ideas that are not in
agreement with what God has
declared to be true. The
Bible has a word for this change
in perspective. It's called
"repentance." We tend to
associate repentance with coming
to the altar in tears to confess
sin -- and certainly it may
include that. But
in the Greek, the word we
translate "repent" actually means
to change direction, to change
one's perspective, to bring one's
thinking in line with God's
thinking. Here's the definition
on the screens. You
remember what John the Baptist
preached? "Produce fruit in
keeping with repentance. And do
not begin to say to yourselves,
'We have Abraham as our father.'
For I tell you that out of these
stones God can raise up children
for Abraham" (Luke.
3:8). He
was saying to the Pharisees and
the Saducees that their thinking
about a relationship with God was
all wrong. They thought they were
rightly related to God because
they're related to Abraham. They
needed to change their thinking
to bring it in line with God's
thinking. And
John said that with that change
in understanding should come a
change in behavior. "Produce
fruit in keeping with
repentance." Now,
in that context -- of bringing
our thinking in line with God's
thinking -- what I want to talk
with you about today is
"mammon." That's
a word found in Matthew 6 and in
Luke 16 that we don't use much
anymore. Many of the modern
translations of the Bible use the
word "money" instead. But the
actual Greek word,
mamonas, is a bit more
expansive than money. It means
money, plus the things money can
buy. It means worldly wealth.
Material things. Earthly goods.
In modern vernacular, we would
say our "stuff." What
I want to do today is to try to
bring our thinking in line with
what God has said about our
stuff. Please
understand at the get-go that
this is a spiritual
issue. It's not just about money.
It's not just about stuff. It's
about the health and vitality of
your relationship with Jesus
Christ. Jesus
says that there are "true riches"
-- greater than worldly wealth.
But whether or not God will
entrust them to us is related to
how we manage the earthly stuff
we have now. Now,
Jesus doesn't explicitly state
here what these "true riches"
are. But Scripture tell us
throughout its pages that the
greatest blessing -- indeed the
very reason we were made -- is to
know God in intimate
relationship. "I
want to know Christ!" Paul
exclaimed. Certainly, a close
relationship with Jesus, and all
the things that flow from that,
are indeed "true
riches." But
why would God make this
connection between how we manage
our stuff and being entrusted
with the "true riches" of a
deeper relationship with Him?
Doesn't that sound more like
works rather than
grace? Well,
what's God's perspective? Turn
with me to 1st Chronicles 29.
Here, King David is presiding
over a ceremony. The leaders of
the nation and the people of the
nation have brought vast amounts
of wealth and have given it for
the purpose of building the
temple of the LORD. Let's
start at verse 6: They
gave toward the work on the
temple of God five thousand
talents and ten thousand
darics of gold, ten thousand
talents of silver, eighteen
thousand talents of bronze and
a hundred thousand talents of
iron. Any who had precious
stones gave them to the
treasury of the temple of the
Lord in the custody of Jehiel
the Gershonite. The
people rejoiced at the willing
response of their leaders, for
they had given freely and
wholeheartedly to the Lord .
David the king also rejoiced
greatly. Yours,
O Lord , is the greatness and the
power Yours,
O Lord , is the kingdom; Wealth
and honor come from you; Now,
our God, we give you thanks, But
what does David say in his
prayer:
"Yours, O
LORD, is the greatness and the
power and the glory and the
majesty and the splendor, for
everything in heaven and earth is
yours." He is saying it all
belongs to God. Verse
14 sums it all up -- here it is
on the screens in the New Living
Translation: And
the same is true for what you and
I have. It's not our stuff. It's
all God's stuff. "But
wait a minute," you might say.
"You don't know how hard I've
worked to get where I am. I
worked days and went to school at
night. I've sweated and slaved
and fretted and saved and built
it all from the ground up and
it's mine." No,
it's not. The man who prayed this
prayer in 1 Chronicles 29 is King
David. You talk about a guy who
worked hard. He wasn't just a
king, but a military leader. The
kingdom grew and prospered
because David was out there
fighting battles and running from
Saul and living in caves and
sleeping in tents and putting his
life on the line for the
nation. And
what does he say in his prayer?
"Yours, O LORD, is the
kingdom." We
read that and we tend to put it
in the New Testament context --
"the Kingdom of God." But
remember David is the king of an
earthly nation -- and being king
was tough. Even
so, David didn't say, "Look at
what I have accomplished. He
said, "Yours, O LORD, is the
kingdom." And in verse 14 he
said: "[W]e have given
you only what comes from your
hand." This
is the foundational principle of
what the Bible teaches about
money and material things. It
might be in your pocket, your
name might be on the deed, but it
doesn't belong to you. It belongs
to God. This
is why Jesus connects spiritual
blessings -- the true riches --
with how we handle material
wealth. God isn't saying, "If you
manage your stuff well, I'll
entrust you with better things."
He's saying, "If you manage
my stuff well, I'll
entrust you with better
things. Why?
Because He wants to make sure we
really understand that He is the
owner, we're just stewards.
That's true in the material and
it's true in the spiritual -- and
one is the training ground for
the other. If
you want to go deeper with God,
if you want to have spiritual
life and ministry that are rich,
this money issue is a key
component. Money isn't just about
money. Look
with me at this statement on the
video screens. It's a provocative
statement, but it's absolutely
true. Do
you really believe it when you
sing, "Lord, you are more
precious than silver"? What you
do with your money and your stuff
either will affirm that
profession or deny it. Do
you really believe Jesus' words
when he says, "Give and it shall
be given unto you"? He's saying,
"Give by faith. Give -- and trust
God to give you what you need."
Do you believe that? What you do
with your money and your stuff
reveals the answer. Do
you really believe it when Jesus
says who ever can be trusted with
little -- and the context tells
us he's talking about money --
who ever can be trusted with
little can also be trusted with
much? I
know these are uncomfortable
questions. But let me tell you
why I'm bringing this up -- this
whole issue of God and our
stuff. It's
because I want to see Gateway
Church be all that God is calling
us to be. I want to see you
become all that God is calling
you to be. And Jesus says -- if
we take his words at face value
-- that if we're not faithful in
how we use the material things
God has entrusted to us, then
we've put up an obstacle to
receiving things that are better
than worldly wealth. We've put up
an obstacle to going deeper with
God and receiving the blessings
of that deeper
relationship. So
what does this mean practically?
Well, first let me tell you what
it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean
that the sign of a faithful
steward is to have lots of money.
On the contrary, Jesus said
having riches is, more often than
not, a stumbling block to coming
to know God at all, because
wealthy people so often trust in
their riches. So
God isn't looking to see if
you've made lots of money. He's
looking to see if you are
managing well what He's given
you. John
the Baptist said, "Produce fruit
in keeping with repentance."
Well, let me suggest some "fruit"
that should begin to grow if you
and I repent in this area of our
stuff. How
would you treat what you have if
you saw it as God's, rather than
yours? Would you give more
freely? Would you practice
hospitality more? How would you
change the way you spend your
time? I
am firmly convinced that
Christian people ought to be
smart shoppers. Suppose you could
save $30 a week on groceries.
That's more than 15-hundred
dollars a year that could be
saved for your children, or
invested for your later years, or
given to a ministry. I'm
not talking about being cheap.
I'm talking about being a good
steward. Understanding that God
owns our stuff and we're simply
managers of it should make us
careful managers, especially
since our management of worldly
wealth has an impact on what God
entrusts to us in the spiritual
realm. It's
not uncommon in our day for
families and individuals to be
spending many thousands of
dollars every year on
interest. What
if we could all put an end to
that by getting out of debt?
Think how much of God's money
would be freed up -- for our
families and for the work of
ministry. Earlier
this year, I had the opportunity
to hear a presentation by Ed
Young, Jr., pastor of Fellowship
Church in Grapevine, Texas. He
said he took his young daughter
to a high school football game --
high school football is big in
Texas, as it is in
Georgia. After
a while, she asked him, "Dad, can
I have some money. I want to buy
a bag of Skittles." You know what
Skittles are? They look sort of
like M&Ms, but they're fruit
flavored. So
he gives her a dollar or two, and
after a while she comes back with
the Skittles, sits down beside
him, and starts eating them.
After a minute or two, he turns
to her and says, "Those look
good. Let me have a couple." And
she gives him a cold stare and
says, "No way! They're
mine!" Well,
Ed said he was on the verge of
getting angry with her when he
realized that's just the way we
so often are with God. Everything
we have has come from Him and
belongs to Him, and yet when He
asks for it, we tend to say, "But
this is mine!" The
truth is, the reality is, it's
not yours. It's not mine. It all
belongs to God -- your money,
your house, your car, your
stocks, your bonds, your
retirement funds, your business,
everything you've got. I
want to leave you with this to
think about. Kevin Myers, pastor
at Crossroads Church in
Lawrenceville got me thinking
about this in one of his
sermons. You
and I have a natural desire to
acquire. There's something in us
that wants to have more. It's a
desire that is never satisfied.
And it is focused on the material
things -- the stuff -- of this
world. But
now that we have encountered
Christ, God is working in us to
refocus that desire for more.
He's refocusing it from the
material to the
spiritual. As
you mature in Christ, the desire
to acquire more
stuff should be
replaced by a desire to acquire
more of the things of the
Spirit: more
maturity in Christ, more
spiritual knowledge and wisdom
more ministry in the
Body. And
in the financial area, rather
than wanting to get
more for ourselves, we start
wanting to give
more in the work of the
Kingdom Are
you there yet? Has your desire
for more become a spiritual
desire, rather than a material
one? Well,
if not, pray about that. Don't
feel condemned. We're all in
process. God is changing us one
step at a time. But
just understand that this is
where God wants to take you -- to
the place where you are a
trustworthy steward of both the
material and the spiritual, a
person who knows how to handle
the riches of this world and the
riches of the Kingdom. "[I]f
you have not been trustworthy in
handling worldly wealth, who will
trust you with true
riches?"
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
God
and your stuff
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
Take a look at this drawing on
the video screens.
Now,
is there anyone here to whom this
simply looks like an orange and
black picture of nothing in
particular? How many of you think
in might be the outline of a
map?
Now, part two of this test --
this is a little quiz I picked up
from Andy Stanley, pastor of
Northpoint Community Church down
in Alpharetta.
A
change of
perspective
Repent
Now,
repentance isn't just some kind
of mind exercise, because how you
and I think affects
how we act.
As someone once said, "The
deed is related to the
creed."
Mammon
and your spiritual
life
Look
with me at Luke 16, starting at
verse 10. This is Jesus speaking,
giving an application to a
parable He's just told. Verses 10
and 11:"Whoever
can be trusted with very
little can also be trusted
with much, and whoever is
dishonest with very little
will also be dishonest with
much. So if you have not been
trustworthy in handling
worldly wealth" (-- that's the
word mamonas --) "who
will trust you with true
riches?"
Whose
stuff is it
anyway?Then
the leaders of families, the
officers of the tribes of
Israel, the commanders of
thousands and commanders of
hundreds, and the officials in
charge of the king's work gave
willingly.
Then King David prays a wonderful
prayer, starting in verse
10:David
praised the Lord in the
presence of the whole
assembly, saying,
God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
and the glory and the majesty and
the splendor,
for everything in heaven and
earth is yours.
you are exalted as head over all.
you are the ruler of all
things.
In your hands are strength and
power
to exalt and give strength to
all.
and praise your glorious name.
"But
who am I, and who are my
people, that we should be able
to give as generously as this?
Everything comes from you, and
we have given you only what
comes from your hand."
Now, understand that at this
ceremony, there was greatness --
David was the greatest king in
the history of the nation. There
was power -- Israel had defeated
her enemies. There was splendor
-- marvelous wealth had been
gathered for building the
temple.
All
this wealth, all this power, all
this majesty, all this splendor
-- but David know it wasn't his
stuff. It was wasn't the leaders'
stuff. It wasn't the people's
stuff. It was God's
stuff.
'Yours
is the kingdom'
Revealing
what you believe
What
you do with your money and your
material possessions reveals to
God -- and to yourself -- what
you really believe.
Putting
it into practice
First, we need to start acting
like we really believe our money,
our houses, our cars, our time
are not actually ours at all.
"Yours, O LORD, is the
kingdom."
Second, we need to manage what
God already has entrusted to us
more carefully. Indeed, this is
what stewardship is all about.
We're simply managers of what
really belongs to God.
If
the Sovereign King of the
universe entrusted something to
you, would you waste it? Would
you squander it? Or would you try
to make sure you used it as
wisely and carefully as
possible?
The third practical application:
Knowing that God owns it all and
that money isn't just about money
should make us very conscientious
about getting out of debt. We
ought to be saying, "Look at how
much of God's money is being
consumed by paying interest on
this credit card or car loan or
home equity loan."
And the fourth application: This
biblical understanding of God's
ownership should lead to a change
in the way we think about
giving.
Refocusing
our desires
Joseph Slife served as
Gateway's lay leader from
1997-2005.
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
020811a: God and Your
Stuff.
©
2002 Joseph M.
Slife