HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?
(American Wealth and a World of Poverty)
Luke 16: 19-31 (p 741) Oct. 9, 2011
I’m gonna prefix this sermon with a few important statements…one of them might be the biggest understatement I’ve ever made….”I am not an economic or fiscal expert”. I pay my bills on time…I have spent some time discussing financial issues…including debt and investments with very wise financial people…but I’m a minister…
And second we need to understand that God’s word never teaches that wealth is inherently evil…Scripture never condemns riches or possessions in and of themselves…In fact; scripture teaches that God gives us material resources for our good.
The apostle Paul writes “Command (strong word huh?!!) Those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share” (1st Tim. 6: 17-18)
Money and possessions are not necessarily bad. God intends them to be for our enjoyment and the spread of His glory…
But there are some radical questions that as a minister I must ask…and I will try to ask these questions in scriptural context….
I IS IT PART OF MY NATURE TO SEE WHAT I WANT TO SEE AND IGNORE WHAT I WANT TO IGNORE?
It is a fact that in today’s world more than a billion people live and die in desperate poverty…they survive on less than 1 dollar a day.
Close to 2 billion others live on less than 2 dollars per day…that means more than half the world will struggle today to find food, and water…I spent more on my lunch at Subway yesterday than half the world has to find food, water and resources for survival for the week.
More than 26,000 children today will breathe their last breath because of starvation or because of a preventable disease.
That’s 26,000 Xavier’s…and Peyton’s…
Each of us agrees that Jesus has commanded us to “Go”, “Baptize”, “Teach”…making disciples of all nations.
But it’s very easy for me to have a blind spot when it comes to nations outside America…or better put…it’s easier for me to take care of and love people who talk like me, think like me and look like me…we start with a lot in common and that makes sharing Christ with them easier and comfortable for me.
But then I think…”Rick, are you like that rich man in Jesus’ story?”
Jesus told this story to a group of religious leaders who loved money and justified their excesses because of the culture around them.
Jesus tells them about a rich man who lives in luxury while he ignores a poor man, Lazarus, who sat outside his gate, covered with sores and surrounded by dogs, eating the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table…
The day comes when both men die…The rich man goes to Hell…the poor man Heaven. The rich man can see into Heaven and cries out for relief from the agony of Hell.
The reply from heaven…”Son, remember that in y our lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things…but now he is comfortable here, and you are in agony. And beside all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot (I’d think that number would be 0) nor can anyone cross over from there to us.”
It is very easy for us to get so involved in our lives that we forget the poor man at our door.
The rich man didn’t go to hell (because) he was rich…and Lazarus didn’t go to heaven because he was poor…their destination was determined by their faith in God.
The poor man’s name…Lazarus means “God is my help”…and Lazarus has trusted God in his sickness, hunger, and poverty to lift him up…over and over again scripture proclaims God’s care for the poor…
(p 397) Ps 35:10 says “Who is like you, O Lord? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them”.
But the rich man felt no need for God’s rescue or faith…He had no relationship with God on earth…therefore he ignored the poor and as a result earth was his heaven and eternity became his hell.
It’s very easy for us to be like the rich man in this story…we see what we want to see and ignore what we want to ignore.
When I watch T.V. it’s usually late at night at a time when infomercials and appeals run at the breaks…often these commercials show abused or sick animals…asking for money do help in their rescue or recovering…
But there is one commercial…it shows a little child in a ghetto of poverty with a fly on her face…and as soon as it comes I turn it…I don’t want to watch the guy in the white beard walk through the sewage ridden street asking me for just 37 cents a day so Adolfo can go to school…or not starve to death…I’d just as soon ignore it…it makes me feel guilty…it might be true, but I’d just as soon forget it exists…
Most of us don’t consider ourselves rich…but the reality is…if we have running water, shelter over our heads, clothes to wear, food to eat and some means of transportation then we are in the top 15% of the world’s people in regard to wealth.
Well we should thank God He’s blessed us…right?!! Yes, but God never blesses His people for their own comfort…He blesses so it can be used to bless others.
IT REALLY DOES MATTER…
II WHAT WE ARE BULIDING
On this Sunday we gather in a multimillion dollar building…In our parking lot…millions of dollars worth of vehicles…We’ll go out to lunch after worship and spend thousand to eat before we return to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of homes. We live in luxury.
Meanwhile, the poor man is outside our gate…in the hour we’re meeting this morning a thousand children will starve to death because they have no food. And 4.5 billion people are lost outside the Kingdom of God.
Can I share with you why this teaching of Jesus in Luke 16 and in many other places is so radical…the people of Israel had a foundational belief and, it’s because we still believe that the temple of God is a building…and that God will bless us materially if we follow Him…
In Mark 10 Jesus encounters a rich young man. Jesus tells him…go sell everything you have and give it to the poor.
And the disciples are shocked when Jesus ends this conversation…”How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God”.
The rich young Jewish guy walks away…and the disciples according to Mark 10:24 are “Amazed at His word” Why are they shocked and amazed?
Listen to David Platt’s answer in radical….it’s amazingly clear and lucid!
SEE THE ATTACHED EXCERPT
The disciples could not understand why obedience to Christ would lead to this man losing his wealth.
Here’s why…. SEE ATTACHED EXCERPT
God’s purpose took wing when this spiritual shift occurred…His people no longer were inheriting a physical land with a physical temple (the shadow) but became His temple!...and they were to shine His glory wherever they went…and that was to the ends of the earth…to all nations.
We are not saved by our work with the poor…but we cannot live a life of luxury while Lazarus starves at our door…and our primary purpose cannot be “come to our building” It must e we are building the Kingdom of Go in and through people…all people…we come here, so we can be better prepared for God to send us…out there.
These are the two philosophies which will shape any church: “Come to us” or “Go to the world”.
With the right resources and people they first come be an American Success story. With the power of God and the resources of the Holy Spirit the second fulfills God’s eternal purpose.
As I end today please know I struggle with this constantly…I want our students and children to have room to be together and study…I want people to come here to this building with great joy…the joy of fellowship and the joy of filling up from God.
Therefore I battle within myself…what do we need to accomplish this without becoming selfish and self centered…just throwing scraps to the world? I’m thankful God gives direction through His word…and through His people.
What I do know is I want my daughters and sons to realize that church isn’t a place we gather, but a people who love God, love others and serve both…and most of that will happen outside these walls...or should!
Hell is real…it’s eternal and so is Heaven...
And God, in His amazing plan has allowed us at Fern Creek Christian Church to impact the Kingdom of God..
In 2010 we added 93 new members 56 of those were transfers from other churches 37 of those were baptisms (brand new believers) 16 of those 37 were adults…Shelby Pile, Glenn Sieja, Tim Francis, Andy Carter, Jessica Foster, Simone Potts, Chris Green…just to name a few…
