Giving to God

Giving to God

Luke 12: 13 – 21.

Introduction

I think you need to hear some good news about our church this morning.  (Early in the week I was planning to brag on you in one area, but today I have two reasons to brag.)

First, this week I got to see First Baptist Church at her best.  There was an outpouring of love and concern for Emily Watts and her family.  Our folks rallied to their side in their time of need…People took food to their home…Then, our choir, orchestra and soloists put on the very best worship service I have ever been a part of on Saturday afternoon.  I am so proud to be a part of this great church.

Second, we had an exceptional financial year last year. 

I can express this in a couple of ways.  At the end of November, we had an opportunity to purchase the property across Bremond Street for $120,000.  We were able to do this as a cash transaction by taking money from our Building Fund, our distributions from the Baptist Foundation of Texas, and borrowing $43,000 from our operating reserve fund.  After all this, we finished the year with a $43,000 surplus…We borrowed $43,000 from our operating reserve and finished the year with $43,000 left over to pay ourselves back!

Another way to look at this is to compare our annual budget with other churches just like ours.  In a typical Baptist church, annual giving is approximately $1,000 per capita.  A church with 400 in average attendance would typically have a $400,000 budget.  Our worship attendance is 400 on a good Sunday, but our budget is over three times what a church our size might expect…$1.4 Million.  There is only one way to explain that.  Our church members are generous and faithful.

(Last year was the first year in a very long time that we were either even with or ahead of our budget almost every month.  We still have work to do on our weekly attendance, but our church is getting stronger and healthier.  That’s a good thing.)

In some ways, I think a good sermon on “Giving to God” might be a really short sermon in our church.  I could stand up and say, “Keep on being faithful like you were last year.”  Or, I might say, “Way to go, First Baptist Church!”

 But, it is not going to be quite that short this morning.  Sometimes the pastor preaches a message TO the church, preaching new information that the church needs to learn.  Sometimes the pastor preaches a message FOR the church, repeating what the church already knows and lives out.

Let’s take a look at one of Jesus’ many teachings about money and possessions.

Luke 12: 13 – 21.

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’

20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

More than likely, the man who asked Jesus to help with his inheritance was a younger brother.  An older brother would have no reason to seek outside help.  According to Jewish Law, the older brother would receive a double portion of the family estate when their father died.  If there were two brothers, the inheritance was divided into three parts.  The older brother would receive two-thirds, and the younger brother would receive one-third.  If there were three brothers, the inheritance would be divided into four parts.  The oldest brother would receive two-fourths (one half), and the other brothers would receive one-fourth.  This must have been a younger brother.

It’s interesting that Jesus would not hear his case.  Moses heard cases like this, but Jesus refused.  It is entirely possible that Jesus is refusing to associate himself with the Law and therefore be viewed as nothing more than a new Moses.  But, I think it is much more likely that this is a statement about greed.

Notice how quickly Jesus moved away from any discussion about inheritance Law in order to talk about greed.  I think Jesus is getting at the heart of the matter.  It is as if Jesus is saying, “How am I supposed to judge between your greed and your brother’s greed?  All kinds of greed are bad.”

In fact, the rest of the passage contains a direct warning about greed and a parable about a greedy man…

A Warning about Greed

Luke 12: 15…  “Then (Jesus) said to them, ‘Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’”

There are a couple of important things to notice about this verse.

First, notice that Jesus addressed this warning to “them.”  A question came from one man—a “him.”  But Jesus addressed his response to a group of people—a “them.”  This tells me that Jesus is using this man’s question as an illustration about a common human problem.  The brother with the inheritance problem was not the only greedy person in the crowd.  In fact, I think all of us face the temptation to be greedy.

Second, Jesus actually helps us understand the nature of greed.  Greedy people do not have a good understanding of money and possessions.  Instead of thinking of money as a tool which can be used either for good or evil, greedy people think money is a measuring stick.  A greedy person needs more money in order to measure or define their life.

Have you ever wondered how much is enough?  How much money is enough money?  How many cars are enough?  How many clothes / shoes / stuff is enough?  How much land is enough?

It’s like the old rancher who once said he didn’t want a lot of land.  He just wanted to own all the land that touches his land.  If you define yourself by your money and possessions, you will never have enough.  You will always want more.

There is a better way to think about your money and possessions.  We ought to think of money and possessions as tools which help us do what God has called us to do.  Instead of being obsessed with how much money we can accumulate, we ought to be concerned about how we use our money.

Are we using money to accomplish godly purposes?  Or, do we use money to define our purpose?

An Example (Parable) about Greed

To illustrate this warning about greed, Jesus told a parable about a farmer.  I cannot think of a better example to use than a farmer.

When I was pastor in Mississippi, we had a lot of farmers in our churches.  I observed some remarkable things about farmers.  For the most part, farmers are hardworking and honest people.  Farming is hard work six days a week and twelve months of the year.  There is planting season, growing season, harvest season and fixing things that broke down season.  And farmers know how to depend on God in their daily lives.  They pray for rain and sunshine.  They pray for God to bless their crops.  Farmers plant and cultivate and harvest, but only God can produce the crops.

If this man was a farmer, then he was probably a hardworking and honest man who knew that God had provided his bountiful crops.  He became wealthy through hard work and faith…not through any illegal or immoral activity.  But there was a problem with all this wealth.  The farmer could only think of himself.

He didn’t think about how he could use his possessions to accomplish God’s purposes.  Instead, he could only think of himself.  He wanted to have the biggest barns in the county.  He wanted everyone else to admire him of all he could accumulate.

Life was looking pretty good for the rich farmer…That is everything was good until he came to the end of his life…

Luke 12: 20…  “But God said to (the rich farmer), ‘You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded from you.  Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’”

“This very night” indicates that it is too late for the farmer.  There is not enough time for him to get his affairs in order.  There is not enough time for him to make his peace with his family and loved ones.  He had come to the end of his life, and all he had to show for it was the biggest barn in town.

In my experience, no one talks about money and possessions when they are facing death.  There is something in us that recognizes what is truly important about life.  The most important things are not material things.  The most important things are not things at all.  The most important things are your relationships and your purpose in life…your ultimate reason for living and how you used your resources / possessions to fulfill that purpose.  When we face death, we will not think, “I wish I had bigger barns to store all my money and stuff.”

“(W)ho will get what you have prepared for yourself?” does not refer to the transfer of wealth from one generation to another.  Instead, it demonstrates that we cannot take material possessions with us after we die…Material things remain for someone else who did not earn them.  If we can’t take material things with us, then material things are not the most important things in life.

Rich toward God

Of course that raises a question about what are the most important things in life.  According to Jesus, this can be answered through a simple comparison…

Luke 12: 21…  “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

This is the difference between material wealth and spiritual wealth.  Material wealth is an abundance of things you can see and touch.  Spiritual wealth cannot be seen or touched. 

In one sense, spiritual wealth is your relationship with God.  You cannot earn a relationship with God.  It is a Grace, a gift God gave us when he gave us his Only Son, Jesus, to provide forgiveness of sin and eternal life. 

In another sense, spiritual wealth involves whether or not you use your material wealth as a tool to accomplish God’s purposes in the world.

The only way to have spiritual wealth is to understand why we are here in the first place.  This understanding is based on the story of creation from Genesis 1 and 2.

When God created the first human beings, God gave them a responsibility.  God created a beautiful and perfect world.  Everything in this paradise was just as God intended—it existed in perfect harmony.  Human beings were in harmony with God; in harmony with each other; and in harmony with creation itself.  The man and woman did not create this paradise.  Instead, God placed them in paradise to be caretakers of all God had created.

Since human beings did not create the world, they did not own the world.  God created and owned all material things.  Humans were the caretakers, or the stewards, of God’s created world.

Somewhere along the way, we reversed the order.  We began to think we owned the created world and could do with it whatever we wanted to do.  We could abuse and exploit the creation.  We could even use it up to serve our own selfish desires.

A proper understanding of creation helps us to understand our role in the material world.  All material things belong to God.  God is the creator and owner.  However, God has given us the responsibility to be caretakers and stewards.  We are to use created and material things to accomplish God’s purposes in God’s creation.  This includes our responsibility to use financial resources.

When we read the Old Testament, we find many references to tithing—giving one-tenth of material possessions to be used for God’s purposes.  When we move into the New Testament, we find that Jesus has fulfilled the requirements of the Law through his life, death and Resurrection.  However, the New Testament does not lessen God’s requirements for us.  No.  The New Testament actually intensifies God’s requirements for us.  We should not say that the New Testament alleviates our financial obligations.  We should say that it actually requires more of us.

Conclusion

Some people believe the church talks about money too much.  I once heard a presentation by a group of pastors about how churches do not give people enough opportunities to give.  There are several ways you can give to our church.

Budget…Giving to our regular church budget supports all the ministries of our church: preschool, children, youth, adults, senior adults, worship, discipleship, evangelism, missions, fellowship, and the physical plant of our church.

Missions…Three times a year, we collect special missions offerings for international missions, North American missions and Texas missions.

Designated…Often we have special projects going on at the church, and we give you an opportunity to participate in those.  For example, we are beginning work to build a house in the Texas Valley for a family with children.  They are currently living in a dilapidated trailer.  We are going to build part of the house right here on our parking lot on Saturdays and Sundays in February.  Then, over Spring Break, we are going to finish the construction down in the Valley.  We need to raise $25,000 for the materials to build this house.

Building…We have a Building Fund that we use for special building projects.  In the past couple of years ago, we used this fund to renovate our parlor, put in new flooring in the preschool area and to update our youth room.

Estate Giving…We have recently removed $60,000 (capital improvements) from our annual budget by using distributions from the Baptist Foundation of Texas.  Currently we have $1.5 Million invested and receive about $80,000 per year from this investment.  All of this money came from people who left money to FBC in their wills.  You don’t have to leave a million dollars to the church.  Small gifts add up and can contribute to the future of our church.

However, none of this would be possible if you as an individual or we a community of faith believe that we own material wealth.  This is the wrong view of money and possessions.  When we have the proper understanding of money and possessions, it is possible to use God's resources to achieve God's purposes in God's world.