Financial Security. Now there’s something that we all want, don’t we? Question is: How to get it. The world tells us to put our faith in money. God … God has a different way. It’s not nearly as seductive as the world’s way – but that’s not the only difference. The real difference is that God’s way actually works.
Winners and Losers Over the last couple of weeks we have been talking about money. Why? Because so many people had issues with money. Sometimes we don’t have enough; other times the desire for money and wealth and all that that brings can overwhelm us. So many of us are immersed in cultures that worship wealth: advertising that rampantly and without check promotes conspicuous consumption and governments keen to make their economies grow, who tacitly or explicitly, endorse excessive consumption.
All that leads to a malady that sees us becoming enslaved to the idea of wealth and success, many people labouring so hard; so excessively on this treadmill, that it’s killing us. Any of that sound vaguely familiar?
So, over the last few weeks we have been looking at that problem and how this love of and desire for money tears so many of us apart. On the one hand, we want to love God; we want to be generous and to do good in this world but on the other, many want to be wealthy and hang on to their wealth, so, becoming enslaved to it. They are like a dog with two masters.
Today we are going to have a look at the solution. Now, I come to this whole issue of money and materialism as one who has spent most of his life – at least the first thirty six years, before I met this Jesus somewhere along the dusty road of my life – as a rampant, extreme, committed, born again materialist. I wanted to be rich.
That’s where I came from. And perhaps you have heard me say it before, but as hard as I worked at that – and man, I worked hard and I was well on the way, you know – but as hard as I worked at that, it simply never, ever delivered the satisfaction and the contentment that I was looking for. It promised satisfaction; it promised contentment, it just never delivered.
Over the last decade and a half of walking each day with Jesus, far from perfectly some days, I have to say, but just walking with Him the best way I knew how, I’ve discovered a different way; another way of handling wealth and money and it’s the only way that I have been able to find that actually delivers. And that way goes back to a simple and yet radical and, to me, challenging, even repugnant principle of life that Jesus talked about. We touched on it briefly in the first programme of this series, “Money Matters – A Kingdom Perspective.” And that principle is this, Luke chapter 9, verse 24:
For those who want to save their lives will lose them, but those who lose their lives for my sake will save them.
Now, there was a much broader context within which He made that statement. The context was about winning and losing and we will look at that in a moment. But the principle here is this: it’s this paradox that by hanging onto our lives – and that includes our money – eventually we will lose everything but by letting go, we will save ourselves.
In other words, winning leads to losing but a deliberate choice to lose, leads to a win. I know it sounds a bit bizarre but the first part of that is something that I have already proven in my life. By trying to win; by trying to be wealthy; by serving the god of wealth, what I have discovered, beyond any reasonable doubt, is that it just doesn’t work.
Now, let’s look at the broader context of winning and losing that Jesus was talking about, because when we do that, all of a sudden it starts to make sense. Now, this comes at a time when Jesus had been wandering around, healing people, preaching with power and authority and relevance in a way that rang true for the people. Crowds, huge crowds are following Him. We are looking at this, beginning at Luke chapter 9, verse 18. So if you have a Bible, grab it and read this with me:
Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They answered, “John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Messiah of God.” He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, saying, “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
Then he said to them all, “If any of you want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."
So, His closest disciples had figured out who He was – the Messiah, the Son of God; God Himself in the flesh. And I don’t know about you but, at this point, if I’m one of the twelve I’m thinking, "Boy am I on a winner here? Son of God, WOO HOO!!" And then He launching into this whole suffering bit, that He’s going to have to go through and the suffering that they are going to go through themselves. This miracle Man, Jesus, as we know, ultimately gets Himself nailed to a cross. He becomes the ultimate loser so that you and I can become the ultimate winners.
That’s what happens to Him and that’s what He says has to happen to His disciples – you and me included – if we want to follow Him. By suffering and sacrificing, He was glorified. That’s the principle and you and I, we’re called to take up our cross daily and follow Him. Not to follow a worldly path of success. Does that mean we have to go round poor as church mice – all of us?
Well, now later in the programme, we are going to meet one person that Jesus encountered who was as poor as a church mouse and one who was wealthy, and we will see the contrast. But what it does mean – here’s the underlying principle – is that when we are prepared to lose our wealth for Jesus, that’s when we discover true wealth.
Friend, there are so many different ways of doing that. The choices we make on where we live and what we drive and how much our lifestyle will cost us. Will I have a high flying job that earns me lots of money but demands a hundred and twenty percent of my life? Or will I have a lesser paying job so that I can do some of the things in my family and my community that Jesus is calling me to do?
When it comes to supporting God’s work, will I throw my loose change into the hat or will I give sacrificially; will I give in a way that truly costs me something? That’s where the decisions are made; that’s where the rubber hits the road and that’s when we choose to lose (great phrase that) we choose to lose in the money department when we get into the business of giving through the cross.
In other words, giving sacrificially and that sort of giving is the sort that hurts. That’s where we discover the satisfaction and the contentment we have been looking for because then, all of a sudden, we gain mastery over our money. Instead of us worshipping wealth, now our wealth serves us – and not just us but God. And when we lay it down like that, our heart changes. As Jesus said in Luke chapter 12, verse 34:
For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.
The Widow Gives All We live in a pretty conventional world where the more you have the more you are worth. Let’s say that you and I get together and form a company and that company needs some start-up capital. I can’t afford quite as much as you; let’s say you are able to come up with seventy percent of the capital and me, well, all I can do is come up with thirty percent. Because you are wealthy, the seventy percent isn’t too much of a drain on you, but I’m not as wealthy as you and coming up with my thirty percent meant that I had to scrape every spare penny out from under the wardrobe and go without a whole bunch of things.
That’s okay though, because I want to be part of this new venture, so the way it works if this: you come up with seventy percent of the capital so you are going to own seventy percent of the company. I came up with thirty percent of the capital so I am going to own thirty percent of the company.
Now, that’s not something that anyone is going to dispute – it’s fair, it’s pretty conventional wisdom – it’s just the way things are. Well, it is, until we enter God’s economy! And here’s how God truly got in my face over what I was doing with my money and what that said about what was going on in my heart.
The second teaching on this from Jesus I would like to share with you briefly right now. It’s about a widow who gave toward God’s work. Let’s have a look:
He looked up, (this was Jesus) He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put two small copper coins in. He said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.
That comes from Luke chapter 21.
It seems that the Lord is not so much concerned with how much we give but rather, with how much it costs us. He is concerned to see that His people don’t give so much out of their excess but they give sacrificially, because in so doing, it demonstrates the power of the work, of the Word and of the Spirit in their hearts.
And there’s a reason for that, because it’s the degree to which we are prepared to give in a way that costs us, which speaks to God of our hearts and where they are at. And this is the point ... this is precisely the point where a whole lot of people become very touchy, very sensitive about some preacher talking about their faith and their money in the same breath; to facing how sensitive we are when it comes to the umbilical cord that runs between our hearts and our wallets.
Earlier we saw how Jesus said in Luke chapter 12, verse 34:
For where your treasure is there your heart will also be.
And Luke chapter 9, verse 24:
For those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake, will save it.
And that’s because the desire of God’s heart is that we worship Him first and foremost in our hearts, before any other god, before the god of money and of wealth, before the god of self. Consider this widow, obviously God had moved her to give all that she had to give. Now, do I think we should do that largely? No! Do I think that we should do that to support some preacher’s jet-setting lifestyle or personal jet? No!
But every now and then God will touch us with a need somewhere in the world – someone in desperate need; a missionary or a ministry that’s doing God’s work at home or abroad and have a real need to be able to fund that; a friend whose car is going to be repossessed because he is unemployed and can’t meet the payment – whatever it may be, the list is truly endless.
But God lays this one particular need on our hearts and here’s what we do: whether we realize it or not, we weigh the cost. "Well, yea, I could give a hundred dollars to that mission, they really do need it but I don’t know, I was planning to go out for dinner, or I was planning to buy myself a new pair of shoes or ... I’m not sure. If I give that will I have enough left over to buy the things I really want to buy, to do the things I really want to do?"
Friend, that is precisely what we do. Let me take you back to the widow. Let just let her story ring true in our hearts. Not my words but God’s:
He looked up and he saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; but he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, “Truly I tell you this poor widow has put more in than all of them for all of them have contributed out of their abundance but she out of her poverty, has put in all she had to live on.
She gave to God not just the money she was going to use for discretionary expenditure, she gave her essential money – the money to live off – to God. And what did Jesus say, she was silly to do that, she was ill advised, she should have been more prudent? No, He praised her. And do you think for one moment this God would have let her go without? Do you think for one moment that He would have left her destitute after this great sacrifice of faith that she made?
See, it wasn’t just the sacrifice, it was the faith that she showed. Maybe she was the one who had heard Jesus say in Matthew chapter 6:
I tell you, don’t worry about your life – about what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body or what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you worth more than them? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothing? Look at the lilies of the field how they grow – they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you not even Solomon in all his glory, was clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you - you of little faith?
Therefore, don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ’What will we wear?’ For it is the gentiles who strive for all these things and indeed, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.
Maybe she was the one who had heard Jesus speak those words and maybe ... just maybe, she had decided to believe Him. Not just in her head, not just in her heart but with her life.
Walking Away from Tyranny Okay, we have just met a widow; a nobody who gave all she had to live on to God’s work. It’s powerful stuff! Here was a woman whose faith in Jesus had given her mastery over her purse. As little as she had, she was able to give it in faith. And I know, beyond any shadow of any doubt, that this humble, nameless, poor little nobody amongst men, was an absolute giant in the Kingdom of God.
But now let’s meet someone else; a man at completely at the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum. If you have a Bible grab it and turn to Matthew chapter 19, beginning at verse 16:
Then someone came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep his commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honour your father and mother; also, you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” The young man said to him, “I have kept all these; what do I lack?"
Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and they said, “Then who can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”
See, here’s this rather wealthy young man who obviously remains troubled despite the fact that he appears to be following all the commandments of the law, yet, for some reason, he still seems to be troubled. This law abiding believer; doing all the right things apparently, is so troubled he feels the need to ask Jesus what to do to gain eternal life, so Jesus gets him to tick off some of the Ten Commandments. All okay there – tick, tick, tick, – but then Jesus puts His finger right on that sensitive bit of flesh that I was talking of earlier; that flesh that runs from our hearts to our wallets.
Jesus knows that there is one commandment this young man isn’t keeping. It’s the one that Jesus doesn’t even mention in His list because it’s the first one; the most important one of all and the very one that his young man is breaking. Exodus chapter 21, verses 2 and 3:
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt; out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.
The problem wasn’t that this young man had money, lots of people had money. Solomon had money, David had money – they were never told to give it all away. In fact, Solomon was one of the richest men who ever lived on this earth a thousand years or so before Jesus, and God never said to Solomon, "Hey, Sol, listen, ah, all that money you’ve amassed, it is somehow sinful and you shouldn’t have any of it, give it away." Did God say that to Solomon? No! So why does He say it to this young man, on that day? Why now, why this guy? Because the love of money - see, that’s the key – not the money itself, but this man’s love of money was causing him to break the first commandment.
Now, I know, I can hear some cynical person saying, "Great, well that’s the Old Testament, the first commandment. We are not under the Old Testament law any more. No problemo!" And to that person I would say, "Have a listen to what Jesus said in the New Testament when He was asked what was the most important commandment of all." Luke chapter 10, verse 27:
Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbour as yourself.
Friend, the widow that we met earlier, although she was the one who, despite being at the bottom of the social scale, despite not being one of the beautiful people who gets invited to the social soirees, she was the one who had the mastery of the god of wealth, whilst this rich young man who was one of the beautiful people, simply didn’t.Remember the Scripture that we looked at last week, First Timothy chapter 6, verse 10:
For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and in their eagerness to be rich, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
‘For the love of money’ not money itself – it’s the love of money. That’s why I feel so sorry for this young man. I ache for him because he missed out in the end.
I have had some angry and vitriolic outburst from people when I have talked about this – outbursts that spring from that tender flesh that connects their hearts to their wallets. "How dare you tell me I have to give money away! How dare you?" Well, it’s not me, it’s Jesus because He wants our hearts; He wants all of us; He wants us loving and honouring and serving the God of heaven before all other things – “that we would have no gods before him.”
And look at how Jesus interprets this event for His disciples; look at what He says about the reward that comes from laying our wealth down at God’s feet. Straight after this sad young man wanders off Peter the Apostle has something to say. Peter says:
Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
The reward for those who sacrifice their lives, including their wealth for God, is a hundredfold return – not just double, not just triple, not just quadruple – a hundredfold. The reward is eternal; the reward is inconceivable. Those who take their wealth to make themselves first today, will ultimately be last and those like the widow, who are prepared to be last, they will be first.
Friend, this is the Word of God. It is better to be the widow on this earth who gave her all than to be the sad, young man who lost his life at the end. See, it strikes me that there is a difference between a here-and-now mentality and an eternal perspective. Everything that you and I have – every asset, every possession, every car or house or trinket or toy – not one of those things will pass with us from this life into the life eternal that lies beyond this grave.
And what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his life (spends an eternity without God).
My friend, what we do with our money says everything about who is first in our hearts. That’s the point here!
