I Spend So I Can Glorify God
Did you know that the first modern-day lottery was started in 1963 in the state of New Hampshire. Did you know that the state of Massachusetts, started their lottery in 1972 with 50 cent tickets and a drawing once a week. It now has 33 different games to choose from their sales have soared from $71 million in the first year to $3 Billion today. - Did you know, that in Colorado, the lottery organizers spend more than $400 million dollars each year trying to lure residents to gamble on lotteries. And in a $25,000 study called Mindsort they analyzed the left and right sides of the brain to understand how to manipulate players behavior in order to get them once hooked, always hooked. - A Massachusetts Lottery Ad sums up the point I am trying to get across perfectly. In the ad they offer two choices for how to "make millions." Here is a quote: "Plan A: Start studying when you’re about 7 years old, real hard. Then grow up and get a good job. From then on, get up at dawn every day. Flatter your boss. Crush competition ruthlessly. Climb over backs of co-workers. Be the last one to leave every night. Squirrel away every cent. Avoid having a nervous breakdown. Avoid having premature heart attack. Get a face lift. Do this every day for 30 years, holidays and weekends included. By the time you’re ready to retire you should have your money. Or Plan B: Play the Lottery." Hey if we can have it quick and easy why not?
The last few weeks I have been addressing the importance of saving our money for more than just having wealth at the end of your life. And I know you have been told by various people in your life the importance of putting some of your money away in savings– as financial expert Dave Ramsey says it is the “kind of wisdom your grandmother gave you.” The problem is we do not always do what we know is right – experts are saying that the average family today has close to $10,000 in credit card debts so either the advice has not been given or it has been simply forgotten.
We should also be clear about how much God does care about our spending habits. Giving money to the church is one way to honor God with our wealth, but do we consider the other money we have to also be used for His purposes or is it just disposable income? Does God care if I play the lottery or spend my money on stuff which doesn’t exactly help his cause? This is something most people would rather not think about because it interferes with our concept that every penny we have belongs to us to be used as however we see fit. But if the wealth we have is power and freedom, doesn’t that mean we should be careful how we use our power and freedom? The answer to that is always yes.
I. First-fruits Lesson
A. Let’s step back into the OT to make sure: Do we understand why God established a 10% as the measurement for giving to the church?
Leviticus 27:30 “A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.” The word tithe means 10% of what they received – their income was in crops and livestock, possibly they received money when they sold those things to the community, but there was s clearly defined amount they were to give to the tabernacle or church of their time.
1. First, it would probably help us to have a little understanding about who the book of Leviticus was written to initially. The nation of Israel had just emerged from the bonds of slavery to the Egyptians. They had been controlled and commanded by human masters with very little possessions of their own.
*Practically speaking the whole nation needed clear and concise rules because they were just starting to become a nation – the book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy is like a manual for having an orderly society. Both books are filled with rules and regulations – from marriages to land ownership to eating habits, the Israelites needed a lot of instruction to create civil order. Foundational to their life was to be their trust in God – and by giving to God 10% of what they earned it would teach them a couple of important lessons.
a. To take inventory – in order to know how much to give to God they would have to know how much they had received. It would take planning and a diligent watch over their possession to do what God wanted. This was a very practical reason.
b. To make God a Priority – Because the first expense we decide to pay is often the most important this set the priorities first upon what the Lord wanted. Anyone can say they love God or are going to obey God but the old saying is, “put your money where your mouth is,” and each household in Israel was investing in God’s house.
c. To demonstrate how to spend your money on greater purpose – The Levites were one of the 12 tribes of Israel whose main purpose was to serve in the house of the Lord. They weren’t to own land or have income from the ground; the gifts to the tabernacle were what they used to live on. So the people who gave to the temple or tabernacle were honoring God by being obedient and also supplying for the needs of the families who worked in the Lord’s house.
In the NT Paul would try to connect the dots with the Corinthian church about their giving and how it translated into the real changing of the lives of people.
2 Corinthians 9:12-15 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
2. Even though God himself did not need to have things given to him the Israelites to give they needed to have a clear set of instructions about what to do – the law was put into effect to train them what kind of things would please God.
*Paul refers to this in the book of Galatians 3:24-25 24So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. For the Israelites and all people the law was a baby sitter or a like a guardian setting strict ground rules to bring them into good habits. But when Christ came to the earth he became the new one in charge and his desire is that all who love God will do what God wants not because they have to but because they want to.
B. That principle of doing more than you are required was hinted at in the OT by the principle of giving of the firstfruit – or the first part of the harvest or healthy animals born that year. Their initial spending from their income was to go toward honoring God.
Listen to Proverbs 3:9-10 Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. This is one of the reasons why here at Forest Dale we start our Stewardship Campaign for the next year in November because this challenges each one of us to make a plan to give before the year begins. The green cards we have are an opportunity – they save “Saving For Life” meaning that your investment in the church and the work of Jesus is storing away treasures in heaven for eternal life. But you will notice the card doesn’t say “put down the amount you estimate you can afford,” it instead is a reminder that we need to put our giving as the first decision in our financial life instead of leaving it to the end. Because as Christians we should not be simply content to give the same amount we gave last year but should be looking to receive the promises in the Bible like this verse in Proverbs. Those things will not just happen, like every commitment we have to decide and then faithfully execute the plan to make it happen. That commitment card is a great way to keep yourself on track to follow through.
1. The promise was that if you trust God to provide your needs would be taken care of – but the next level was more impressive. If you put a greater trust in God by making sure he was the first one paid on your list of responsibilities.
2. This was where the people could demonstrate their faith, and as Proverbs states it was an opportunity to step up on the spiritual scale. Choosing to spend your money on God was a way of honoring and glorifying him which would not go unnoticed.
*So an important step in the developmental life of the Israelite community was their participation in the firstfruits offering. What it would give them is a
II. Functional Understanding (of God’s way)
A. Now there is a difference between knowing what God’s word says about obedience and really catching the intention of the truths he gives.
1. Every part of the Bible has a small revelation about the person of God. This is something we often gloss over in the Bible; God intended us to look at his truths written there and to think “Why did God want me to do it this way?”
*Because I hear people who don’t spend much time in the Bible or in the church state that what the Bible teaches is outdated or irrelevant to life. That it is out of touch with modern societal problems – that it condemns things like homosexual behavior and limits church eldership to men only and claims that people who don’t belong to Jesus are doomed for eternity – to a world who values tolerance above everything else this seem to be wrong on so many levels. Some see that and say the God of the Bible is false because a loving God wouldn’t act that way or state that his rules are simply his effort to oppress people for his own sadistic reasons. And as people of God when we are questioned as to why God said these things we can respond with “because he did,” and that answer is just sounds like a cop out.
2. So it is very important that we not only know what it says but to search for the reasons why God said them. Obviously God wants us to give to the church so that the offerings will be spent on his work and his kingdom. But is it just the tithe he is concerned about being spent and He simply does not care what we do with the rest?
B. Nowhere in the Bible does God ever give up ownership of everything we see around us.
Psalm 50:9-12 I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, 10 for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. 12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
1. Which means God is clearly interested in what we do with the possession we have been allowed to control. And it’s more than just how much we put in the offering plate; it is about how thoughtfully we spend it.
*Most of the time it doesn’t seem like our spending has anything to do with God or even matters much to him. Typically we don’t think about God when we are spending money at the grocery store or putting gas in the car. We might think about him when the gas or electric bill comes thinking “Lord I don’t know how I am going to pay for this if it gets any more expensive!” There are thousands of mindless activities which we spend our money on which do not seem that doesn’t seem to have much bearing on the Lord’s kingdom one way or another.
2. What we should ask ourselves is, as a Christian does the use of my possessions glorify God?
a. One way to do this is to make sure that how we are spending our money is not causing stumbling blocks for other people. Because even though we are free to enjoy the things on this earth, there are some activities which will cause more harm than good.
*I enjoy competing in races such as 5ks and 10ks, and recently there was one 5k which was called “Run like Hell” where the theme of Halloween and scary monsters was suppose to be right along with the season. Now I don’t think dressing up during this time of year is a bad thing, nor do I think that the majority of the people who signed up to be in this race are interested in promoting Hell. But I wouldn’t choose to participate because I think people take the whole concept of a real Hell as kind of being something that isn’t going to happen or that it is some kind of place that really bad people go. That is not the kind of think I want to support because of how it seems to laugh at the real evil and eternal consequences – to me it is a matter of conscience because I think supporting it does more harm than good.
b. Also we should make sure we aren’t supporting things which go directly against God’s will. If there are organizations which seek to tear apart families or promote behaviors which are clearly judged to be wrong by God’s word, spending our money or energies in those areas reflects badly upon God. We wouldn’t think of promoting books which support Atheism or organizations who teach people how to steal, those things work against God.
c. And we should remember that even if something isn’t specifically Christian, if it can be used for good then it will glorify God.
*Think about it this way – one time the disciples of Jesus saw a person who was not a member of their group and they tried to stop them from doing something good because they weren’t part of the 12. Jesus responded to them in this way from Mark 9:39-41 39"Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40for whoever is not against us is for us. 41I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.
3. If a cup of water given in the name of Jesus is worthy of a heavenly reward then clearly what we do with every penny is also an opportunity to see the same kind of reward. The big point of making this effort is to be dedicated to God in all areas and to live out the….
III. Faithful Work
A. The idea is not about giving every dollar and possession to the church but about seeing how what we spend can be used to honor God.
1. There should be an expansion of our view of what it means to glorify God – because things which aren’t outwardly godly still server godly purposes.
*Many years ago the founding of the Chick –Fil-A restaurants decided to close his stores on Sundays because he wanted to keep that day special and allow the workers to be able to go to church. Sundays are quite profitable in the restaurant industry and by the estimates of most experts Chick-Fil-A has not grown as fast as most because of this decision. Mr. Christie made a choice which seems to be a bad economic one but he was determined to do something which would glorify God. And anyone who likes the restaurant knows that you can’t go there on Sundays and it is a testimony to the owner’s effort to honor God.
2. Our efforts to honor God might not seem to be as large an impact on the world and for that reason many people start to believe that what they do doesn’t impact anyone else’s life.
*Jesus didn’t demand his followers fulfill a long list of activities, or even purchase God approved products he told them to be faithful in two areas; Matthew 22:36-40 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Part of loving God is finding ways to honor him in the basic things of life including our decision to spend the things we are blessed with.
3. But how exactly do we love God when it comes to spending our money?
*That is not a simple question and it kind of frustrates people when they hear it. Why couldn’t Jesus be more specific? Why couldn’t he just define it in a 30 second commercial or make it easier to understand? I saw in the book store the other day one of those yellow books which said “Computers for dummies.” They had a whole series of them- cooking for dummies, rock climbing for dummies, talking to dummies for dummies – and they had the Bible for dummies. When did we become so convinced that complicated and deep truths could be boiled down to something for dummies? That has often been our excuse to quit trying instead of spending time trying to figure things out for ourselves. The whole idea of loving God means searching first for what love means and second for ways to display that love. No dummies allowed!
B. I think the best way we can honor God in the financial areas of our life is to make our spending thoughtful and deliberate.
*And for the past three weeks I have been concentrating on the financial aspects of our life – how we should be consistently saving our money as a path to getting out of debt and staying out of debt, how we should be making plans to be more generous in the future with our money than we have been in the past, and how a life where we can be giving people is the best life we can find on this earth. The theme – “Saving for Life” is our Stewardship plan for giving to the church but it is more than just turning in those green cards you were mailed or see here in the pews. We have so many obligations and costs – it just seems to run our life sometimes about the financial future robs us of both joy and opportunity in the present.
1. Stop mindless spending. If you just spend money and buy stuff without a reason you are not honoring God. We have freedom to use our money because God didn’t give us specifics on how we were to do it, but if you aren’t thinking about it you are going to do selfish things and end up supporting things which do not honor God.
*You’ve seen it happen where people through excitement, pressure, or panic make awful decisions – sometimes that person has been us hasn’t it? 1 Corinthians tell us that love is patient and does not envy – love takes thought and intention, mindless action is never good and it always ends up costing you more later. We honor God when before invest in anything we say “How will this reflect upon God? Is this something that would displease Him? “ The Holy Spirit will guide us when we delay a little and listen.
2. Know where your money is going – Just like mindless spending is a problem, not knowing how much you have or how much you spend is not what God would want either. The idea of tithing is to give 10% - but if you don’t know where your money is going then how can you asses how much to give? Being accountable is handling the things we have like we will have to give it back to the person who loaned it to us. That person is God, and we should be serious about using it wisely.
3. Enjoy the wealth that God has given you. If you have more than you need then be thankful! If you can still find enjoyable things in life and have fun without sinning or tempting other people to do the same then keep it up!
*If you believe the Bible is correct then you will understand that God’s plan for complete life enjoyment involves giving, having self-control with your spending, and making thoughtful choices about what to do when he blesses you with more. Jesus Christ died for our sins and the Bible states that anyone who is immersed into his name received forgiveness and the Holy Spirit of the living God comes into their soul for the rest of their life. And this life is but a preview, a training ground where we can improve our love for God by growing in maturity and faith. Our money is just one simple yet vitally important way we are able to demonstrate that love both to God and to the world around us.
