[Clip from short film, Gone Nutty, from Ice Age. Scrat tries to store nuts for the Ice Age, and he stores one too many. 4:12]
Jesus warned us about two dangers: greed (which includes materialism), and worry. Both of which lead to the same problem, storing up for ourselves treasure on earth, rather than storing up treasure in heaven.
Greed
After being asked to mediate over an inheritance, Jesus said, “be on your guard for all kinds of greed, a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions,” or as the NLT put it, “Real life is not measured by how much we own."
Jesus illustrated this with a parable about a man who had a bumper crop one year and decided to build bigger barns so he could take life easy and enjoy the good life, food, drink, and partying. We could say, what’s wrong with that? Notice, in the story there was no thanks or recognition to God for providing, no thought to the needs of others. Instead his thoughts ran directly to himself, storing up more for himself, build bigger barns, store up for his future. Unfortunately, Jesus said, his life would end that very night without him being able to enjoy any of it, and he wouldn’t take it with him.
Today, Jesus might have said, imagine you won a million dollars from the lottery. What would you do with the money? Do your thoughts run quickly to all the fun stuff you could buy, does your mind run to retirement, a bigger house, or does your mind run to what God would want you to do with the money, since he blessed you with it? It’s not that God doesn’t want us to enjoy life, but as we reminded ourselves last week, God provides so we can provide for others. God blesses us, so we can be a blessing for others. The man in the parable didn’t even stop to consider why he received the bumper crop, he assumed it was all for his benefit.
Jesus’ words are just as penetrating in the 21st century as it was in the 1st century. We live in a society of plenty, and we tend to act as though life IS measured by how much we own. We were downstate visiting family for Thanksgiving and in Thursday’s paper there were at least 20 ads for after Thanksgiving Day sales (or Black Friday) as it is known. Of course I found myself looking through these ads. As I’m looking through this do you think I was looking for Christmas gifts for others. No, I found myself thinking, “wouldn’t it be nice to have that HDTV.” These ads of course are encouraging us to buy more stuff for our loved ones Christmas. I’m all about the spirit of giving and generosity, after all God is giving and generous to us. However I wonder when do we go too far? When does it become greed or materialism where we just collect stuff or gift it away just because we can? We end up gathering more treasure on earth. It seems we have crossed that line. Christmas is coming up and the focus again seems to be on what we want for Christmas and what gifts are we going to buy rather than on the real reason for Christmas, God’s gift of his Son Jesus.
Worry
Sometimes our motivation for storing up treasure on earth (particularly wealth) is not greed or materialism, but worry, worry that some day there won’t be enough money. It is a scarcity mindset. They are like our little rodent friend Scrat on the video clip, trying to store one more nut before the Ice Age out of fear that he won’t make it through the winter so he has to pack that last nut in.
When we live in this fear, we like to pad our bank accounts, pensions, 401k’s, property, with excessive amounts because we are afraid there won’t be enough. I believe a lot of people who have gone through the Great Depression have this mindset. They store up vast sums of money not out of greed, but out of fear that there might be another depression. For those of you who have parents who went through the Depression you probably know that they don’t like to get rid of anything either.
Of course there is nothing wrong with saving. I believe saving for the future is a Biblical principle. I believe God desires for us to save and plan for the future. However we can go too far and keep collecting, more property and more money. But this can be equally as dangerous as storing up out of greed because it is done out of worry or anxiety about the future.
I know I tend to struggle with this problem. I tend to worry, will we have enough money when we retire? Will social security even be around when we get older? Should I compensate for not having social security? How much should I compensate? Will we have enough money to buy a house? Will we have enough to support having children? These are good questions to plan for the future, but if they move to worry, then my temptation is to store up excessive treasure for the future, without being generous toward God right now.
The issue here is one of faith. Will we trust in God to provide? [Show dollar bill]. What does it say on our money? It says, “In God we trust.” Do you realize this dollar bill is really only worth the paper it is printed on and the ink it is printed with? It used to be that we had gold to back up all of our currency, but we have long since printed currency which surpasses our national treasury. Now it is only by the faith of the people that it is worth anything.
Jesus spoke to this issue as well, when he said, “do not worry about your life what you will eat or what you will wear.” In other words don’t worry about being provided for because God will take care of you. If God provides food for the ravens which do not sow and reap, won’t he take care of you? If God provides for beautiful clothing for the lily of the field, won’t he clothe you? We need to be care that we are not storing up treasure on earth
1. Storing Up Treasure in Heaven
How do we avoid the danger of being a spender and storing up treasure on earth (with more stuff) because of greed and materialism on the one hand or being an excessive saver and worrying about not having enough on the other hand? Jesus’ solution…store treasure in heaven. Invest in God’s kingdom. Jesus said if we put God’s kingdom first (and by that he included our treasure) He will provide everything we need here on earth. By storing treasure in heaven we break the bonds of greed and materialism, and we learn to trust in God as our provider rather than in our own ability to stockpile for the future, and we also build God’s kingdom here on earth, all at the same time.
We break the bonds of greed and materialism because, as Jesus said, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Where you invest your treasure, that is where your heart is. If we place our treasure in stuff, where is our heart? In materialistic things. If we place our treasure in God’s priorities, where will our hearts be? Our hearts will slowly become focused on God and His priorities. The two are always tied together because we place our money where our real priorities lie. If you let me look at your checkbook and all your assets I could tell you where your heart really lies, and what your priorities really are.
Last week I mentioned some surprising numbers about priorities of the average America, like that the average American…
…spends $1,350 per year for soda
…spends ~$1,100 per year for coffee and tea
…spends ~$3,500 per year for beer, wine, and alcohol
…give ~$14 per year to the hungry and homeless
This should tell us a lot about where our hearts really are.
If our priority should be storing up treasure in heaven, how do go about doing that? Somehow I don’t think you can drop ship your cash or possessions to heaven. I don’t think UPS or FedEx deliver there. As the saying goes, ‘you can’t take it with you.’
A. Give to the Those in Need
Jesus tells us one way of storing up our treasure in heaven in 12:33 “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.”
Last week we looked at the world situation, and some of the numbers, like:
28 % of children in developing countries under age 5 are underweight because of malnourishment,
An infant born in a developing nation is 10 times more likely to die at birth than in a developed nation.
A mother is 32 times more likely to die during child birth in a developing nation.
More than half the world’s children are suffering the effects of poverty, war and HIV/AIDS. UNICEF Annual Report, 2004
The United States has the highest homeless rate of the top 21 developed countries.
As a result of the tsunami, 15 million people lost their jobs, their livelihood…over 5 million Indonesians have no clean water, no electricity, no medical care.
The global orphan population is projected to reach 106 million by 2010
• 15 million U.S. children live in poverty…
• 12 million U.S. children go to bed hungry every night…
• 7 million U.S. children are homeless…
• 4½ million U.S. children lack adequate medical treatment.
There are 629 million children living in the world today…
72% -- 452 million -- will live at or below the poverty line…
76% -- 478 million -- will be functionally illiterate…
The Bible tells us that the very first Christians did exactly what Jesus said. They literally sold their possessions and gave to those in need. Listen to what the Bible shares about these first Christians.
Acts 2:44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
I know people who have sold their luxury vehicles and purchased a more modest vehicle, giving away the difference. Their reason for selling the vehicle was because it was a only a status symbol (BMW, Lexus, ) and not practical. I know others who have sold their television and gave the proceeds to missions because the TV owned them rather than the other way around. Others have cancelled satellite or cable services and used that money to sponsor a child monthly through an agency like Compassion International or World Vision. I figure the average cable bill is probably around $40/month, while the cost of sponsoring a single child through Compassion International, which provides their food, healthcare, and education is $32/month or about $1/day. How much was that cup of coffee or pop you drank before you came to church?
NIV 1 John 3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
Unfortunately, some of us are not in the position either materially, or spiritually to step out in faith and sell our possessions (the stuff we don’t need) and give to those who are in need, but we can prioritize where we are spending our money.
Do we prioritize that bonus to buy more toys , but to be a blessing to others (I’ve been convicted on this one myself)?
I realize this goes against the whole Christmas trend in America to buy more stuff (even if it is on sale). I don’t know about you, but I am getting tired of getting stuff I really don’t need, and buying stuff for others that they really don’t need when I have this Biblical guideline for putting God’s kingdom first by putting the poor, whether materially or spiritually, first. By spiritually poor I am referring to those who do not have Jesus Christ in their life.
Here’s an idea from someone in our church. Instead of buying more stuff this year for other people, take the money you would have spent and give the money to a Christian ministry in their honor like support a child through Northern Lights Ministry (Kate & Peter Walugembe) or to buy an animal to feed a hungry family through Heifer International. You could also suggest someone do that for you as well.
B. Give a percentage of your income to the Lord (God’s standard is the tithe)
In the Bible, one of the ways in which people put God’s kingdom first was by giving a percentage of their income to God. In the OT God required his people to give 1/10 (also called a tithe) of their crop, herd, or flock. It was either directly offered to God as a burnt offering, was eaten (at least in part) by the giver as an act of joy, it was given to the priests and Levites who worked in the Temple, or it was given to the poor including the widow and orphans.
While we are no longer required to give a tithe of our income, God’s guiding principle continues to be giving a percentage of our income to God’s kingdom, the tithe (10%) is still a good guiding principle which even Jesus affirmed as long as we continue to practice other important things such as justice, mercy, and faith (Matt 23:23).
Some of you may not be aware that our church gives a tithe of our income to the United Methodist Church. As United Methodist’s we are a connectional church, partnered together in mission and ministry to make disciples of Jesus Christ. In order to accomplish this, we send a tithe to the larger church. Currently our tithe is 12.6% which is determined by our conference, but eventually the goal is to make it 10%. This tithe, which we call a ministry share, goes toward the ministry of our denomination, including salary for our conference workers, such as our bishop and district superintendents, and other conference and national staff, and it also goes toward world mission and evangelism, peace and justice ministries, Africa University, and the ministerial education fund (which helps support pastors in seminary) to name a few.
Jesus affirmed 10% as a standard, however the average UM church goer gives only about 1.8% of their income. I find that interesting considering that the Average American spends about 110% of their income. Where are our priorities?
What would planet look like if we stored up treasure in heaven rather than storing up treasure on earth for ourselves? I imagine, the hungry would be fed, the naked clothed, the Good News of Jesus Christ would be spread throughout the world. What investment are you making in God’s kingdom?
