Investing in Eternity

sermon transcript

Investment Advice from the Expert

A Topical Sermon About Money – Preparing for an Eternal Retirement

Amen, amen. Well, a good church will do a lot of things for you - a lot of information, a lot of encouragement, a lot of fellowship, etcetera. This morning, you're going to get, I hope, sound financial planning for your retirement, and by that, I don't mean the retirement that's going to last just perhaps at most two or three decades; I'm talking about your real retirement, the one in eternity. I want to challenge you to store up treasure for eternity, and to be as you've already heard it in my prayer, liberated from the bondage of covetousness and from enslavement to money.

Now, as I've thought about my preaching life here at FBC, I don't think I've ever preached a topical sermon on money in almost 17 years. So you all are privileged to hear my first topical sermon on money. Now, you may wonder, why have I not done that? Maybe it was just pride on my part; I didn't want to seem like one of those TV preachers that was, you know, oh, you got to grab your wallet as soon as you come into church, and it's like such a cliché. But the fact of the matter is, the more I've studied and looked at scriptures teaching on this, the more I realize how important and vital this topic is.

Advice from Worldly Experts

Now, if you are going to gather around yourself today some financial experts from history to help you plan for retirement or help you invest soundly, who would you choose?  I love reading about history about our country. I like reading about some of the great figures from the past. So, I've got a couple of guys I have in mind. Like I wouldn't mind getting some financial planning from Andrew Carnegie, who was a Scottish immigrant, came over penniless, and by the end of his life was, I think, the wealthiest man on Earth, and was a meticulous and careful investor. Or how about John D. Rockefeller, we could do that. How he saw a small business opportunity in petroleum and eventually grew to dominate 90% of the petroleum industry in the US, I wonder what that would be worth today, 90%. But he was a multi, multi-multi-millionaire billionaire, and he would be a good advice giver. How about in our day and age, Warren Buffet, if you wanted a worldly financial planning, here's a guy that started very, very small, and now he's worth, just through sound investing, 72 billion dollars.

Advice from Scripture Itself – Money and the Condition of the Heart

But I would commend someone else to you for retirement planning, how about Jesus Christ? All of those men are just going to give you worldly advice. I want to hear from Jesus, I would commend him to you because I think he's the greatest investment planner that has ever lived, and I think some of the words that we're going to study today are going to bring us wisdom in ways that I think we really need it. Kyle already hinted at this, but there's an incredible amount of teaching on money in the New Testament, and really indeed throughout the Bible. We need to face all of Jesus's teachings on this topic, fully 15% of his recorded words are about money. As a matter of fact, he talked more about money than he did about heaven and hell combined. As you heard, a third of the parables are about money, and the reason that he said so much about money is that it's an incredible indicator of the health of your soul. And what you do with your money is a very, very clear indicator of what's going on in your heart, just as your words are. You know a record of your words out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks, so also out of the fullness of the heart, the wallet spends. And so if we had a full record of your words and a record of how you spend your money or what you do with your money, well we would know the condition of your soul.

And so we're really getting right away to the issue of salvation. Has God done a saving work in your life, have you actually been moved from darkness to light? Have you actually been rescued from death and brought over into eternal life? You remember the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector, unscrupulous tax collector who had been defrauding people for many years, and how Jesus invited himself over for dinner, what a great story that is. And he was there, and at some point, the Lord sovereignly moved in grace on Zacchaeus's heart, and "Zacchaeus stood up and said, 'Look, Lord. Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.' Jesus said to him, 'Today, salvation has come to this house. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.'" Now, this is a stunning moment in reference to the topic we're looking at today. Notice that Jesus didn't merely say, "Hey, you know, that's a good idea. I want to commend that kind of initiative." No, it's like, "This is how I know that Salvation has come. That you, you greedy tax collector has been defrauding people for years, is finally set free from that, and been delivered."

Or how about the case of the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus? You remember that one? And he comes and says, "Good teacher, what good thing must I do to gain eternal life?" He said, "Why do you ask me about what is good? No one is good, but God alone. If you want to eternal life, then keep the commandments." And the man assured Jesus that He had perfectly kept all of God's commands his entire life, including Honor your father and mother. I find that interesting. I would like to have gone and talked to the rich young ruler's parents and see - was he the perfect son? But he was certainly, he kept all of God's commands. And then "Jesus said, 'One thing you lack. If you want to be perfect then sell all your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, then come follow me.'" And you remember how the rich young ruler went away sad, because he had great wealth and he could not give up his money. Money had such a grip on his heart.

Now, we do not say in Christian ministry that everyone needs to sell everything they have and give to the poor or they won't go to heaven, but Jesus identified fundamentally a God that was enthroned in that rich young ruler's life. He's able to search with those eyes of blazing fire and know what's going on in people's hearts, and he needed to give it up, and no one can enthrone the true and living God without first dethroning the false gods. And money is one of the great false gods there is in our age. And we need to have that, or is it's just going to say, later in the text we're looking at today, "No one can serve two masters." You cannot serve both God and money. So the basic principle here is there's a powerful relationship, a powerful connection between our true spiritual condition and our attitude and actions concerning money and possessions.

Or think about Jesus, the one time he was sitting and watching all of the people giving their money at the offerings and along comes this poor widow who puts in her two little copper coins, and Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this woman has put in more than everyone else. All the others gave out of their abundance, but she gave the all that she had to live on." Now, can you imagine your standard worldly wise financial planner, right at her elbow, she's about to give those two copper coins and doing everything they can to stop her from doing it? It's not wise, they would say. It's foolish for you, but in Jesus's mind, she gave more than anyone else. What that shows me also is that Judgment Day is going to be a day of big surprises, a day in which we'll find out who the true heroes were. And maybe not the upfront people, the people that are the most famous, but this widow and her two copper coins represents the hidden servants of God that God is going to reward more highly than anyone that ever lived. But again, the issue of money.

Are We Living Like the Rich Fool?

And then the parable about the Rich Fool, and this one really sends chills down our backs, you know this parable that Jesus told in Luke 12, "The ground of a certain rich man produced an abundant harvest... " I love that. You know, what did he do? Nothing, but his ground that he happened to own made him a wealthy man. "He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store all this abundant crop that's come in, this amazing harvest. I know what I'll do, I'll tear down my barns and build bigger barns, and then I will store up all of these things and I'll say to my soul, Soul, you have plenty of things for years to come. Eat, drink and be merry.'" And then this terrible word comes to him from God; "God said to him, 'You fool. This very night, your soul will be required from you,'" now meditate on that word, required. That is a summons from the King, and when that summons come, you cannot refuse. "'Then who will get all that you have stored up for yourself?'" And then Jesus commented on the parable saying, "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself, but has not been rich toward God."

The question I want to ask here in our American setting is, how many of us are living essentially like this rich fool? How many of us are building bigger barns to store up the ever-increasing resources that are flowing in, what does it mean for us to build bigger barns, what does that look like? But what does it mean to store up for ourselves things for years to come? And even more importantly, what does it mean to be rich toward God? That's what I want to know from this text that we're looking at today, I want to know what does it mean to be rich toward God. I yearn for the people of First Baptist Church for all of you who hear me, to be rich toward God and so proven to be so on Judgment Day. I want you to invest in eternity.

So that brings us to Matthew 6:19-24. The text there says this, "Do not store for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." So that's the text we're looking at today.

Overview of Chapter 6

Unifying theme for the Entire Chapter: Motivation

Let's get a little bit of context. This is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, that Jesus taught one day, Matthew 5-7. In chapter 6, I think a unifying theme of Matthew 6, right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount is motivation. What moves you to do what you do? And so in verses 1-21, he goes through people who give to the needy, but do it in such an ostentatious way that they get rewarded immediately by praise and honor; they announce with trumpets what they're doing. Or those that pray so conspicuously that they get immediately rewarded for what they do because everyone honors their piety, or people that fast in such a dramatic way that everyone honors them, immediately, he's getting right at their motivation, what motivates you toward a life of piety? He's talking about motivation, but then in verses 19-34, what motivates your physical life, is it a desire for wealth and anxiety over basic needs? Are you concerned about food, clothing, and shelter? And you're worrying about it and you think about it all the time. What motivates your life?

Christ’s Constant Concern: Help Individual Christian Understand His/Her Heavenly Father

Now, in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ's constant concern is talking about the Kingdom of Heaven, what life is like, and specifically our relationship to the king. That we would understand how loving our Heavenly Father is and how able he is to provide for us, he wants us in a right relationship with our Heavenly Father.

The General Principle: Be Wise in How You Store Up Treasure (vs. 19-21)

Underlying Assumption: You’re going to Be Storing up Treasure Somewhere

Now, He zeroes in here on this issue of storing up treasure. Look again at verses 19-21, He first states it negatively, "Do not store up treasures on earth." And then he turns around and does state it positively, "But, do store up treasure in Heaven." The underlying assumption here is you're going to be storing up treasure somewhere. One place or another, you're going to be storing it up. I think it's the same logic at the end of the Sermon on the Mount where he says, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock." And then the house gets tested, but it survives. And then, "…everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice, like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand…" But the implication is both are going to be building, you're going to be building something. Every day you build something, the question is, what's the foundation, are you building on the rock? Is what you're building going to survive, or is it going to crash when the judgment comes? Frankly, then the idea here is the same. You're going to be storing up. Everyone stores up. Non-Christians store up, they just store up wrath for the day of Judgment, but we, we are called on to store up wisely.

Supporting reasons

And isn't it beautiful that Jesus lowers Himself to our level, and instead of just commanding us, He reasons with us why we should store up treasure in heaven. And that is the impermanence of earthly treasure. Verse 19, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal." So he's reasoning with us. He said, "You've seen the way it is in this world. You've seen what can happen to material possessions, what can happen to the money and what can happen to the things that money can buy. They're impermanent, you can't count on them. They're going to be taken from you, they're going to be destroyed in some way." So moth and rust represents the inherent weakness of things in this corruptible world, things never look better than the day you bought them. And then they begin to degenerate immediately after that. You know what I'm talking about. It's just not as shiny, it's not as appealing, and so it's susceptible to decay; everything is that way, all the physical things. And then there's the issue of thieves, that's the inherent vulnerability of your possessions, that they can be stolen from you, another human being, an invading army can come in. A clever burglar can come in. A swindler can come. It could be stolen from you. Greatest thief, of course is death, all of us knows that we're giving it all up at death, that we will not have it with us at that point, we came into the world as Job said, naked, and we will leave the world naked.

Randy Alcorn, who's written very helpfully on the topic of money, possessions and eternity, has this one slogan that stuck with me for years. "You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead." I mean, if there's one slogan that sums up this whole sermon, that's it. "You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead." How do you do that? By faithfully investing in God's work, by giving to the needs of poor and needy people, either spiritually poor and needy, because they haven't heard of the gospel, or materially poor and needy. Giving the needs of the church, you'll send it ahead. Everything given by faith for the glory of God cheerfully will be waiting for you on Judgment Day and will make you rich for all eternity. That's the principle that we've got here, do not store up for yourselves treasures on Earth, but rather, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, because it's permanent. Moth and rust do not destroy in heaven, there's no decay in heaven, and there are no enemies in Heaven, there are no thieves in Heaven, there are no covetous people in heaven, everyone will be perfectly happy with their own hoard [chuckle] and no one's going to want yours or going to take it from you, they'll be happy you had it. Listen to last week's sermon, you'll understand. They will rejoice that you have the joy of being so wealthy in heaven, and nothing will steal it from you.

The Great Issue: The State of Your Heart

Well, the great issue here is in verse 21, the state of your heart. What's really going on in your heart? For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. What dominates your thinking? What dominates your heart? What do you hope for as you look ahead, what are your hopes based on? What do you yearn for? What makes you happy as you look ahead? Now, here we come to the issue of the basic idea of biblical rewards, both earthly and heavenly. "Do not live for earthly rewards," he said, "Don't set your hope on those kinds of things, don't look to the luxuries that money can buy."

The Biblical Doctrine of Rewards, both Earthly and Heavenly

Variety of Material Reward

Recently, I saw a photo of Rafael Nadal who was playing in the French Open, and he had a watch on it that they, a watch on his wrist that they said was worth three quarters of a million dollars. I thought, Oh my goodness, so I was intrigued.  Not ever thinking I'd own such a watch - imagine how that would drive you crazy? How you couldn't sleep at night? Where is it? Is it okay? You know, I mean, well that's worrisome. But then I found out, hey, that's just the beginning. There actually is a watch made by hand, that's the most expensive mechanical watch in the world, expensive because, not because it's diamond-encrusted but because of its intrinsic value. As a time keeper, 2.5 million dollars for a mechanical watch made by a German watchmaker, takes him one full year to make it. And you got to stand in line behind other multi-billionaires of which you'd need to be one to buy a 2.5 million dollar watch.

And I'm thinking, isn't it amazing that people live for those kinds of things? But you say, "Well, that's not me." It's like, yeah, but that doesn't mean that materialism doesn't grab your heart, too even though you don't have a 2 million dollar watch. The bottom line is, we need to store up treasure for ourselves in heaven. And people say, is that appropriate? Should I be thinking like that? Should I be thinking about myself? Should I be ambitious for things for myself? Well, the text seems to imply that, yes, absolutely, you should. You should yearn to be rich, but you should just be wise about it, you should yearn to be rich in a way that you'll never lose your wealth. That's what he's talking about. Don't be a fool in yearning to be rich for yourself.

Immediate Conclusion for Christian: Living for Rewards is Selfish

Jonathan Edwards, when he was 19 years old, made a series of resolutions, and resolution 22 is the kind that just sticks with you as you hear it and understand it. He said this, "Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can with all the power, might, vigor and vehemence, yea, even violence I am capable of. I want to be as happy as I possibly can in the next world." That is the same thing as storing up treasure in heaven, I believe, and he says it's going to take vigor and vehemence and even violence to be maximally happy on the other side of Judgment Day, that's what he's talking about. So if living for rewards is intrinsically selfish not to be avoided, then why does Jesus talk about rewards so much? Why does he say to the persecuted people, "Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven." In Matthew 5:12, why does he talk about loving your enemies in such a way that, if you only love your friends what reward will you get? Everybody does that. Or then as we saw at the beginning of this chapter, in terms of giving to the poor and needy, don't announce it with trumpets, because if you do, other people will praise you and you'll have your reward in full. You want your reward from your heavenly Father who sees what is done in secret and will reward you. And he says it again and again, same thing with your prayer life, he sees what is done in secret and will reward you. He sees what you do with fasting and he will reward you.

So if it's wrong to yearn for rewards, then why does he talk about it so much? I think what we fear is that the sense of the rewards is kind of covetous and selfish and self-focused. But the fundamental thing is the Bible teaches again and again, God will most certainly repay. Remember in Hebrews 6:10 says, "God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them." We just want you to keep on doing it and don't get lazy. God's not unjust, that implies that if he does not reward faithful service to his church, he has in some way violated a contract. He has promised to reward us and He will. He most certainly will. But I think the thing is, we are forgetting that he's at the center of every good thing that we do. Everything we do in service to Him is a display of his power at work in our lives, isn't it? Doesn't he say in John 3:21, "Those who live by the truth come into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they did has been done through God." So we come up to the judgment throne and say, Here are the good works that you worked in me, by your Spirit, to God be the glory.

Biblical Truth about Judgment Day

There's nothing covetous about that or idolatrous, that's just simply taught in Revelation 20:12, that on Judgment Day, "I saw the dead great and small standing before the Great White Throne and books were open… and the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books." So it's definitely going to happen. 1 Corinthians 4:5, "The Lord will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts, and at that time, each will receive his praise from God." The quality of our work is going to be tested. If we build with gold, silver, costly stones, or on the other hand with wood, hay and straw, that day, Judgment Day is going to test our life's works with fire and whatever survives that will be our reward. This is coming.

Our righteous acts are in some way woven into a crown of honor that we will be delighted to wear to show our faithful service to the king. Says in 1 Peter 5:4, "When the Chief Shepherd appears, you elders who have served faithfully will receive a crown of glory that will never fade away." Now we know what happens to those crowns in Revelation 4, all the 24 elders just continually casting their crowns down before the throne. And that's their way of saying, This is mine, but I ascribe it to you. But there's nothing I have that I didn't receive. All of it is from you and goes back to you. Now, the ultimate reason why rewards are not, is not idolatrous or covetous is because the center of the reward is relational with God. If you were to say, I am setting my heart fully on something that has nothing to do with God, but it brings me pleasure, I enjoy it, I look forward to it, I want more and more of it. That's the essence of idolatry. But if you say, I'm setting my heart on God, and I want Him to be pleased with me, and I want him to give me honor and praise, and emblems of His pleasure in me, there's nothing idolatrous about that, it's purely relational between us and God.

For me, the most important words on rewards is in 1 Corinthians 4:5, which you just heard, but I will say it again. "Wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness, and will expose the motives of men's hearts. Now, listen to this, at that time, each will receive his praise from God." Those three words, that's the essence of the reward we're seeking, we want praise from God, that's not praise for God, we'll be doing plenty of that in Heaven, to God, be the glory for everything. But no, that's God praising us. Or we could use commending us. Or as he says, "My Father will honor the one who serves Me." It's God honoring, God praising, God commending us for faithfully serving Him, it's taught so many places in the Bible.

Summary: Essence Of Faith Is Reward, Essence of Reward Is God’s Pleasure

There should be no sheepishness about it. We should yearn for that. I want God to be as pleased with me as he possibly can be. I want to find out what pleases my Lord and I want to do it. We want those famous words spoken over us, well done, well done, good and faithful servant, been faithful of a few things, now I'm going to put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your Master. In other words, let me tell you how happy I am with how you lived your life, that's the essence of the reward. It says in Hebrews 11:6, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him." So he is the reward.

The Danger of a Lost Reward: Materialism (vs. 22-24)

Is this a Warning for Christians?

Now, on the other side, we have the danger of a lost reward, and that comes through materialism. Look at verses 22 through 24, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" Now, the question we have to ask as we read the Sermon on the Mount is, is this a warning for Christians? Is this something we need to heed here should we be worried about our souls? Well understand the Sermon on the Mount was given to the disciples who gathered around him and sat down and they'd professed themselves to be followers of Christ. And he from the very beginning said, "Blessed are the spiritual beggars for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." He's talking to believers. And he is warning us concerning a great danger.

Now, I've said before in other sermons, and it stuck with me and it's helpful, there are two great dangers that face every human being, and they're infinitely unequal.  The greatest danger that any human being faces is that they will lose their soul on Judgment Day, what would it profit someone to gain the whole world and forfeit their soul, that's the greatest danger any of us faces. The only way to escape that is by simple repentance and faith in Christ, not by what you do with your money. Not by buying your way into Heaven; you cannot use your money to pay for sins, but by knowing that you're a sinner and knowing that you have come to Christ, trusting in Him and Him alone and receiving forgiveness of sins, that removes the greatest single danger there is to any human being.

Warning: Wasted Resources, Lost Reward

But the second great danger, and this is for Christians, is that you will waste your life. That you will waste yourselves, you'll waste your time and your energy and your money on things that just don't matter, they have no eternal consequence. And so he is warning us here. He's warning us that materialism, a yearning for material things, chokes out the seed, making it unfruitful. The thorns grow up, and they suck water and nutrients from the soil and deprive the good seed of bearing fruit, and they block the good seed from seeing light. And the thing dies. That's a danger, and so we have to be warned about the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth.

Christ’s Answer: The Single Eye (vs. 22-23)

And so He zeroes in on your eyes and he says, "The eye is the lamp of the body." Now, why does he focus on the eyes? He says, If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. "The eye is the lamp of the body." And researchers tell us that we get 70% of our information about the surrounding world from our eyesight. But He's using a metaphor here, He's saying, if you see things as they really are by faith, if you see the world as it really is, if your eye is single. What is it you will be seeking first above anything else, He's going to tell you in a few verses, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness." Your eye is single, you're like an Olympic Archer, and you're zeroed in on the bull's eye, and you know what you're here for, you know what your life is for. And your eye is single. And if your eye is single, your whole body, your whole life will be radiated with the glory of God. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. You're seeing things wrongly.

Christ’s Answer: The Single Master (vs. 24)

And the core issue here, as we said, is the heart: either you "will hate the one and love the other." Be devoted to the one and despise the other. If you allow materialism to creep into your heart, you'll someday abandon your first love, you won't love Jesus, you won't love His kingdom, you'll start living for money, you'll start living for possessions; that will be your life. God then makes a claim on your entire life, all your resources, all your time, and all your money, and because we love the master, this service is not burdensome to us. Ultimately both God and money force a choice, you can't serve us both, you have to make a decision, we were made to be servants, you're going to serve someone. You can't say, I'm going to serve no one, I'm going to serve myself. Well, you've been deceived. Human beings were created to be servants. You're either going to serve God or you're going to serve Satan. You're either going to serve God, or you're going to serve money or sin. You've got to make a choice.

Application: Stewardship of the Heart

Christ’s Protection of Your Reward

So what application can we take from this? Well, first and foremost, look to your soul. What do your spending habits say about the state of your soul? I think it's right for some of us to be alarmed at this teaching, to be alarmed that I don't want to be the Rich Fool; I don't want to be told by God that I lived my life for money. My whole life, everything was lived for the wrong things. And then he speaks down those terrifying words, "You fool, this very night, your life will be required from you," I don't want to be a fool. So have you been converted? Is there fruit in your life concerning even a reference to your money, how you're spending your money, is there evidence of fruit that you have been converted?

Be Warned!

Second of all, just if you're already a Christian, you know you're a believer, but you want to grow in this area, how are you investing your money, what are you doing actually with your money? Now, many of us may not consider ourselves wealthy, you need to get out more, dear friends; let me tell you two different ways that you can get out. Go on submission trips. Go to Haiti, go to Africa, go to Asia, meet the Christian brothers and sisters there. Alright, and then just do some reading, 20 centuries of church history. I would have to say I'm addressing right now among the top one percentile of wealthiest Christians that have ever walked the face of the earth. And you may say, well, that can't be true, just do the research, you'll find out what kind of condition our brothers and sisters live in around the world. Now, there's nothing necessarily wrong with being wealthy, we just need to be warned; 1 Timothy 6, warns rich people, we need to be warned how we're investing our money. Just because you have a nice home doesn't mean you're materialistic, but it might mean that you're materialistic. Just because you drive a nice car or you yearn to get a better car, doesn't mean you're covetous or idolatrous, but it might. You can't excuse yourself from the inquiry, look at your heart, is there evidence of materialism there, What do you set your heart on? What are you living for? What gives you hope for the future?

And let me just start right here where I think it's reasonable to start, what are your giving patterns here to First Baptist Church? I can tell you with a clear conscience, I have never known anything about any specific member, and their giving patterns at FBC, and I hope I never will, unless they tell me, but don't tell me unless you want to. But I don't know what the book show I don't know what you give. I can look in the eye and say, I don't know. But I believe based on research done in general in churches - and just research out there - there is probably a percentage of you that never give anything at all. And if you never give anything at all, I'm just speaking a word of concern and warning to you, I wonder how it can be that you never give anything at all and you not be idolatrous or covetous, that in some way money has seize your heart. But let's just start there. Is there any pattern of, a possible pattern of, idolatry as shown by what you give to First Baptist Church?

You may ask, Well, what guidelines because I want to increase my giving from what it was to something more, and people quickly soon ask about the issue of the tithe. Well should I tithe? Well tithe is an old English word that means a 10^th; we don't use it much, but at this point, it's in Christian parlance, just has to a tithes and offering a 10th. Can I start there? Well, I think that's a good, actually a very good, place to start if you were giving zero before then let's start at a tithe. Now, Randy Alcorn, and one of my favorite statements from the book says, “The tithe is the training wheels of Christian giving.” Some of you may know I ride a bike for exercise, I enjoy doing that. How would you feel if you saw me and my bike had training wheels? Well, would you come up and talk to me about that? Would you find that interesting? Would you find it disturbing?  How long you've been riding now, Andy? How is that going for you, can I help with that? I'd be willing to run alongside you for a little while and help you. Here's how the logic goes.

Every spiritual practice of the old covenant is enhanced and improved in the new covenant, so if they're giving a tithe in the old, it is not appropriate for us to say, free from the law, happy condition, I can give less than they gave in the Old Covenant. That's not the way to go. Instead, it's like, What can God's grace do in my heart to so completely free me from materialism that I give more and more than I've ever given before. So that's the question you have to ask. Do you sacrifice? Do you defer pleasure so you can give. Do you say, Okay, here are some things we like to do, they cost this amount of money, for a time, we're not going to do those things, take that money and we're going to give it to the church or give it to a Christian ministry. That's what we want to do.

Practical Guidelines from the Corinthians

Is there a pattern of sacrifice in your life? Probably no chapters get as practical on how to give as a Christian than 2 Corinthians 8, 9, I would commend those two chapters, and those two chapters, just give some principles, like give consistently. Actually, in 1 Corinthians 16, it says, "Set aside something in the first day of the week." And some ask, “Do I have to give every week?”  I would commend it to you, I'd commend weekly giving to you, just like I'd commend daily prayer, would you be able to cluster all your weeks prayers in one day and say, got it, done. No, it's a daily discipline we take in the word of God daily, I think in the same way giving can and should be a weekly discipline. Now, you may disagree and you can give monthly, that's fine, but there's just a regular pattern of giving and it's a discipline, it's something you just know it's God's money and give by faith as unto the Lord. It says in 2 Corinthians 8:5, "[the Macedonians] didn't give as we expected, but they gave themselves first to God and then to us as the Lord led." So by faith, give yourself to God and say, What do you want me to do? How do you want me to give?

Thirdly, give generously and sacrificially, give in such a way that it does in fact pinch the way you live. Again, 2 Corinthians 8, the brothers in Macedonia gave far beyond their ability to give, it was just an amazing display out of their poverty it weld up into generosity. And then fourthly, give cheerfully. Friend, can I just tell you, if you can't give it cheerfully, don't give it. But would you please give? And would you please give cheerfully. There's no point in giving if you don't give cheerfully, what are you saying when you'd be grudging God, this money, well, I guess you need the money God, and then you're so grumpy and irritable about it. Do you honestly realize what's happening, you are entrusting money to God, that he would go do something with it in the kingdom, and he's a very good manager of money, and he is keeping a record of what you have now by faith, generously given, cheerfully. And you'll see it again on the other side of Judgment Day. What's to complain about? Be cheerful, God loves a cheerful giver. Because he is a cheerful giver.

Start with the FBC budget. Alright, the budget is the annual.  Basically it's - I love what Ryan says - its church's ministry plan in dollars and cents. So what we spend our money on as a church is on ministry things, now some of them are practical, like AC on a Sunday morning, thank God for that. Cost money, but they're just physical things, but then there are other things in terms of outreach and missions that we do. So First Baptist Church's budget over the last five to six years has been essentially flat. What do I mean by that? It hasn't grown. Do you realize that when it doesn't grow and things like air conditioning, electricity do go up, which they go up every year, you're basically then going back to ministry commitments and reducing the giving in those areas. I would say in the Triangle region, Research Triangle Park area, and all this Triangle region, I think the population is going up, I think it is a lot. So that means healthy churches should see more and more people attending and have more and more money to spend on the Lord's work, so I don't want to keep seeing our budget flat year after year after year. Let's challenge ourselves, let's ask the Lord to enable us to make more money and give more money than ever before, let's see how He'll bless our budget, so start with the budget. Then move to other specific funds like this is the Lord's supper.

And so we have the Deacon Benevolence Fund, what do we do with the Deacon Benevolence Fund what we give to needy people first and foremost in the church, and then secondly in the community. We recently had a number of difficult situations financially in which people have had needs, and the Deacon Benevolence Fund has been there to meet the needs, that is a very quick way to give to widows and to other needs going on in the church, and we have those needs. So if you're not prepared this morning to give to the Deacon Benevolence Fund. That's fine, I understand. But we have it every time we have the Lord's Supper, you can so plan ahead say, “Oh Lord's Supper is coming up,” Deacon Benevolence Fund and you can give any time to the Deacon Benevolence Fund, doesn't have to be just the Lord's supper.

Then there's the issue of missions, you know, every Christmas we give to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering, and we have done very well over the years. We're in the top, I think, hundred churches in the Southern Baptist Convention - not percentage-wise. We're in the top hundred, which is pretty good for a church our size, but understand this, the amount we give $130,000 to Lottie Moon would not support even I think one of our units on the field, so we really are counting on other churches. So I don't think we should strain our shoulders patting ourselves on the back that we give $130,000. I'm grateful for the generosity. But I know that we could give more if we sacrifice more.

And then there's the issue of the Great Commission Fund. Many of you know about it. Many of you don't. In a few moments, we're going to commission, some missionary - did you get my text? Okay, thank you. I'm one of them, I forget. We've got to talk about it. So we're going out and Daniel just came back. The Great Commission Fund helps pay for these mission trips. You may not be able to go on a mission trip but you can support others. Now, what happened was the Great Commission Fund started with some incredibly generous one-time gifts, and we've been kind of living off that for a while, but the number is just going down, money out is greater than money in. That's good because it means there are a lot of people wanting to serve, but we need more money. So Walter Lee at our business meetings, our members meetings, has said he's put a challenge in front of the church. Now, a lot of people don't attend members meeting, so I'm taking that because I think it's great - and I'm giving it to you guys now. It's the rule of 20s, you ready for this? If 20% of the membership of FBC gave $20 a week or a month... Let's go with week $20 - maybe I say month - $20 a month for the entire year, it would generate $20,000, that would be a sufficient increase in what the GCF has to give. Right now, the giving tends to cluster on summer trips and all that kind of thing, and then dissipates. Wouldn't it be awesome if just January, February, March, April, May, the GCF is just real high and people are just generously through discipline giving to it. I would commend that to you.

Then, beyond FBC, there are so many parachurch ministries and mission agencies like Wycliffe and YOM and Cru, and Campus Outreach, and they're doing all kinds of good works, whatever you want to do, invest in it. If you're interested in the persecuted church, give to the Voice of the Martyrs, if you're interested in famine or disaster relief, give to that. Randy Alcorn gives some good principles and how to research some of these companies and how to give wisely, but just give. Bottom line, dear brothers and sisters, like Paul says in Philippians 4, "Not that I'm looking for the gift, but I'm looking for what may be credited to your account." I want you to be rich on Judgment Day. That's why I preach this sermon.

So let's close in prayer and we'll go into the Lord's Supper. Father we thank you for the time we've had to study concerning finances, tithes and offerings and generosity. Lord I pray that you would make us a generous people help each one of us to look and say, Is there a principle of sacrifice in my life financially oh God deliver us from the scourge of materialism and covetousness and idolatry. Help us instead to live for you and to be generous in Jesus name, Amen.