TITLE: Who? Me? A Disciple?: HOW TO HANDLE MONEY 012703a
TEXT: Matthew 28:19,20 19Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 20and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.
PCC?s MISSION STATEMENT: Our four-fold mission is to: REACH lost people with a more relaxed and contemporary style of evangelism and worship. WIN them to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. TRAIN them to be disciples. And, SEND them on to fulfill their God given mission and ministry.
I. BECOMING A DISCIPLE
A. I?ve been asked, ?Scott, how do you come up with your sermons??
Well usually, I consider a current event, a popular problem, many times one of my own. Then I consider what the Bible says about the thing.
1. But today I am going to begin a ten part series?roughly one a
month, in which I am enlisting the expertise of Harry Ramey to assist. We are going to turn my ordinary process around. Instead of taking our current affairs to the Bible for solace and solutions, we are going to start with the Bible and try to transform our current sate of affairs.
2. I?ve entitled the series, ?Who? Me? A Disciple?? Yes, you are
called and I am challenged to make you a disciple. Harry and I are going to show you from the Bible, what you must do in order to become one.
3. In Greek a disciple is mathetes, math-ay-tes, a learner, who is
expected to become a doer. This series will not just be theoretical, but practical. We want to challenge you to apply what we teach you to your daily lives? (James 1:22) But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
B. When we ask the question, ?Who? Me? A Disciple?? The follow-up
question also begs to be answered, ?Why me a disciple?? There are several reasons. Let me give you a couple.
1. When you become a disciple?when you grow in your faith?your
life will get better. Jesus said (John 10:10b) I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest.
2. Honestly, how many of you would say, could say, ?I have life to the
fullest! I cannot dream of it being any better.? If Jesus statement does not epitomize you?it is likely that you need to submit to discipleship.
3. When you start becoming a disciple, adversity doesn?t magically
disappear, but strength to apply to adversities begins to accumulate in your reservoir. You will have at the ready more of God?s wisdom and strength in order to handle life?s situations more evenhandedly and more even tempered.
4. When you become a disciple, the crises you do face will change.
We bring many crises upon ourselves; do to the fact that we are not discipled. We have no fully submitted and committed our selves to the way God has challenged us to live.
C. I want to begin our series on a discipleship topic that is near and dear
to everyone in this room. The Bible gives us careful instruction regarding how we should handle money.
ILLUSTRATION: How many Trekkies, beside Larry do we have today. Larry is probably the only person in this room who believes the Apollo Moon landings were filmed in some Hollywood sound stage and the Star Trek episodes are really documentaries filmed in outer space. In one of the movies The Enterprise is hijacked by a powerful Vulcan psychic and taken to fabled Shagarree. That?s ?Heaven? if you are a Vulcan. Once on Shagarree. James T. Kirk and his landing party encounter a larger than life, nebulous being who possesses mystical, miraculous powers. With much fanfare, he introduces himself as the Almighty God. This being makes one demand. He demands that Kirk turn over control of the Enterprise to him so that he may announce his tidings of good news across the universe. Kirk asks one question that almost gets him killed, while at the same time exposing this God-want-to-be as the imposter that he is. Kirk asked, ?What does God need with a Star-Ship??
1. People at church commonly ask a very similar question: If God is
God, why does He need money? I understand that the church needs money to exist, but the money I might give isn?t going to help very much. I?m poor (look around at the demographic or our congregation, most of us would be considered poor relatively speaking).
2. I?m talking to the guys who live under the bridge or where ever they
can find shelter this morning. What does God need with money? Doesn?t He own and command enough resources to do what He wants?to accomplish His purposes?
3. Yes, I?ve heard again and again the horror stories how a TV
Evangelist swindled a widow out her last nickel.
4. None-the-less, the Bible again and again expresses the necessity
for poverty stricken people to give.
5. Let?s consider those widows. Did you know that there is a Biblical
standard, which spans the Old and New Testaments that speaks directly to this issue? I think that we would all agree that poor widows top the chart of worthwhile, needy persons. No matter how needy you may be, your need probably does not approach the status of these old gals the Bible teaches us about.
TS. How much more then does the teaching here given apply us? Let?s
earn this discipleship issue of how to handle money. Consider first the story of...
II. THE LAST LEPTA
A. (Mark 12:41-44) 41Jesus was sitting in the temple near the
offering box and watching people put in their gifts. He noticed that many rich people were giving a lot of money. 42Finally, a poor widow came up and put in two coins (lepta in Greek) that were worth only a few pennies. 43Jesus told his disciples to gather around him. Then he said: I tell you that this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 44Everyone else gave what they didn?t need. But she is very poor and gave everything she had. Now she doesn?t have a cent to live on.
1. Why does Jesus draw away from those who were contributing
large sums of money and place it squarely upon the one person who was giving the least?
2. I believe that it is the primer, the introduction that is taught
throughout scripture, that if the poor want to be transplanted from their impoverished condition, they have to do something?give something in order to put themselves into the place in their lives where God can bless and honor them financially.
3. God?s desire is always to bless and not curse, save and not
condemn, deliver, not imprison, heal and not destroy. But so much of what God wants to do in your life is determined by your actions?and by your faith.
4. The Widow?s gift was the most significant because it required the
most faith. Or, can you picture Jesus making a positive example out of an individual with a fatalistic, defeatist attitude?one who thought, ?I might as well get it over with. I might as well give my last two cents so I can start starving to death and die.?
5. No! It was always faith that captured Jesus attention and heart.
Certainly her attitude was God, I?m giving You all I have. I?m putting myself in Your hands. I believe that my lot is secure in You. I believe that you will take care of me.
6. Why was it so necessary for the widow to give? Do you know
where the money placed in that box went? In 2 Kings 12:9 we?re told how Jehoiada the priest instituted this box. It was used for the sole purpose of paying the workman who continually worked on the restoration of the temple.
7. Did those guys need the money more than her? They probably had
enough to eat. They probably brought bountiful sack lunches to the job site every day.
8. Was her money used on a project so worthwhile that it would stand
the test of time? No in less that 40 years that building she was contributing to would be completely destroyed by the Romans.
9. It was necessary for her to give because God?s promised blessing,
for which she certainly waited, would only be poured out through this her act of faith.
10. She had a choice. ?Do I want to remain poor with only two lepta to
my name? Or, do I want God to keep His promise of blessing to me??
11. Friends, you have that same choice to make on a daily basis. Do
you want to remain poor? Do you want to continue worrying about how you are going to pay the rent, the electric bill? Do you want the pressure of dreaming up new and creative ways of hitting that rich uncle up for more money?
12. Or, Do you want God to keep His promise to bless you and take
care of your needs? Sell out to God! Allow Bible principles to govern the way you handle money. If you will, your source of revenue will no longer have to be the rich uncle or the government. Your hope will rest in the fathomless, limitless promises of Almighty God.
B. God has revealed Himself to us as the source of all our provision. He
is Jehovah Jireh!
1. Up Mount Moriah, Abraham took the one thing that meant the most
to him in this world, his long promised and long awaited son of his old age. God was testing Abraham. The test was, ?Abraham, will give what is dearest to you? Will you give me your son?? And so Abraham walked up the mountain to offer Isaac as a sacrifice just as the pagans were often expected to do.
2. He built the altar. He stacked the wood. Put his son on top of the
wood. He took out his knife. And angel stopped him and pointed out a ram that was caught by its horns in a thicket. God provided the ram.
3. Abraham had demonstrated that he was willing to give God
anything, indeed everything. And in turn God provided. God revealed Himself to Abraham. His name Jehovah Jireh: The Lord will provide. Abraham exclaimed, (Genesis 22:14) ?On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."
4. Jireh literally means, ?it will be seen.? When you reach that place of
faith?willing to give God all that He asks?it will be seen?the plan will come together. The resources will be provided.
5. This only happens when you reach the summit of the mountain of
the Lord, not when you are still toiling with your problem down in the valley. It happens when you reach the place of surrender and obedience. ?On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."
6. I think the question begs to be asked what happened to the widow
who gave all she had? Did she go off and die of hunger or exposure? Jesus (Psa 37:25 NIV) I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
TS. Jesus doesn?t tell us specifically but I think that we might make
some assumptions based upon another widow in the Old Testament who also gave all she had to God?s work.
III. THE LAST PIECE OF BREAD
A. In the middle of one of the worst famines on record this story comes
to us of another destitute widow: (1 Kings 17:8-13) 8The LORD told Elijah, 9"Go to the town of Zarephath in Sidon and live there. I?ve told a widow in that town to give you food." 10When Elijah came near the town gate of Zarephath, he saw a widow gathering sticks for a fire. "Would you please bring me a cup of water?" he asked. 11As she left to get it, he asked, "Would you also please bring me a piece of bread?" 12The widow answered, "In the name of the living LORD your God, I swear that I don?t have any bread. All I have is a handful of flour and a little olive oil. I?m on my way home now with these few sticks to cook what I have for my son and me. After that, we will starve to death." 13Elijah said, "Everything will be fine. Do what you said. Go home and fix something for you and your son. But first, please make a small piece of bread and bring it to me.
1. Who does Elijah think he is, Elmer Gantry? Where does he get off-
-taking advantage of a starving widow of all people? That?s exactly how the world?s philosophy, controlled by the devil, would react. Can you see the request of a man of God being exploited and exaggerated by CNN?
2. But Elijah was no charlatan. He was the conduit through which
God intended to send His provision to that widow. But it was going to take some learning and some doing on the widow?s part. She was going to have to give and she was going to have to believe.
3. Elijah continued, (1 Kings 17:14) 14The LORD God of Israel has
promised that your jar of flour won?t run out and your bottle of oil won?t dry up before he sends rain for the crops." 15The widow went home and did exactly what Elijah had told her. She and Elijah and her family had enough food for a long time. 16The LORD kept the promise that his prophet Elijah had made, and she did not run out of flour or oil.
4. But you see, God knew the enemies plan. The plan was not just for
the widow and her son to be destitute, poor and hungry. No, no. We know that our (1 Pet 5:8 NIV) ...enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. We know that he comes only to steal and kill and destroy;
5. God knew that this young boy, the widow?s only son would fall prey
to him. The boy got sick and died. Was all lost? Should she start planning a funeral? No, you see God took that gift of four and oil. He took the hospitality rendered to God?s man, and all the faith that it took to provide it in the context of such a severe famine
6. With her faith and action, she had climbed the summit of the
mountain of the Lord. You know what happens when you climb that mountain?when you become a learner and a doer of God?s instruction, motivated by faith?what you can?t see!
7. ?On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided." She?we
serve God who has revealed Himself as Jehovah-Jireh?God Provider.
8. Elijah stretched himself over the boy and called out to God, (1
Kings 18:21) ?Lord, bring this boy back to life?
9. Consider for a moment what might have happened, had this widow
refused to learn and do?refused to be a disciple in this area of how to handle money and resources. What would have happened to her? She would have likely died of starvation, her son would have succumbed to his disease.
B. But you see, I don?t believe that it God?s plan for widow?s to starve
and their only sons to die.
1. Nor do I believe that it is God?s plan for you or your children to be
begging bread. I don?t believe that it is God?s plan for you have to keep going to your rich uncle begging money to keep your power on.
2. I believe that God is calling you to a Mount Moriah?a place of faith
and sacrifice?where you demonstrate the willingness to be a learner and a doer so far as handling money is concerned.
3. Scott are you asking that we empty our wallets and bank accounts
and put the money into the church?s treasury? Not unless God speaks to your heart to do so.
TS. The Bible provides a consistent way for us to demonstrate our
learning and our doing?a way to demonstrate sacrificially our faith. Here is my...
IV. CHALLENGE
A. God Challenges his people to demonstrate that they are indeed His
people through regular giving of 10% of their incomes. Listen to how serious God is concerning this matter:
1. (Malachi 3:8-12) 8You people are robbing me, your God. And,
here you are, asking, "How are we robbing you?" You are robbing me of the offerings and of the ten percent that belongs to me. 9That?s why your whole nation is under a curse. 10I am the LORD All-Powerful, (That?s Jehovah Tsaba??The God organized for war) and I challenge you to put me to the test. Bring the entire ten percent into the storehouse, so there will be food in my house. Then I will open the windows of heaven and flood you with blessing after blessing. 11I will also stop locusts from destroying your crops and keeping your vineyards from producing. 12Everyone of every nation will talk about how I have blessed you and about your wonderful land. I, the LORD All-Powerful, have spoken!
2. Notice I mentioned that God reveals His name as Jehovah Tsaba?
That sound?s violent and harsh doesn?t it. Do you mean that God is going to wage war on me if I don?t tithe?
3. No turn that thought around. War is already being waged upon
you. The devil wants you poor and worse. He wants to wreak havoc in your finances. He wants to hit you close to home so that you will not have enough to provide for your children.
4. What God is saying, is this: If you will honor me, if you will learn
and do what I am telling you to do?Child I?m ready for war. I will defeat your enemy the devil in this area of your life. And every one will stand back in awe and wonder and say, ?Some guys have all the luck!? But then you will have the opportunity to glorify God for the great things He has done.
B. I want to close with one final word on how to handle money. (Mat
6:21 NIV) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
1. I want to challenge people to come and saying, ?God, I want to be
a disciple. I want to be a learner and a doer.? I want my life, and specifically this issue of money to line up with what you have for me.
2. I want to climb Mount Moriah?that mountain the represents faith
and sacrifice, so that when I reach the summit I too can say, ?On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."
