“Let’s Talk About Money & Spirituality”

1. many of you are familiar with Rick Warren’s book The Purpose-Driven Life, the best-selling book in the world since 2003. This book has made Warren a millionaire many times over. What’s he doing with all his money?

2. Warren & his wife have made five decisions:
* they did not upgrade their lifestyle
* Warren stopped taking a paycheck from Saddleback Church where he is the pastor
* he repaid 25 years of his salary to the church he founded in 1980
* they created three charitable foundations
* they started "reverse tithing," meaning they live on 10 percent of their income and give away 90 percent.

3. in 2003 Warren traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa the help lead an HIV/AIDS conference. He was struck by the needs in Africa. He began to reexamine Scripture & was humbled – I found those 2,000 verses on the poor. How did I miss that? I went to Bible college, two seminaries, and I got a doctorate. How did I miss God’s compassion for the poor? I was not seeing all the purposes of God.

4. today Warren is mobilizing his church to be on the frontlines of ministry fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Money & Spirituality
1. today I want to talk about money & spirituality. The 2 go hand-in-hand. Does money come up very often in the Bible? Listen to these numbers:
* baptism – 40xs in Bible
* prayer – 275xs
* faith – 350xs
* love – 650xs
* money/wealth/material possessions – 2350xs!
Money & our relationships with God & others can’t be dismissed or divided.

5. let me take you on a little tour of the Bible & show you what it teaches us about money & spirituality – Solomon, John the Baptist, Jesus, the early church & Paul.

Solomon: Proverbs 3:9-10
1. these are my all-time favorite Bible verses about money, wealth, giving.

2. 1st we honor God with how we use my money. Our money matters to God. The way we spend our money is a statement of faith!

3. 2nd God deserves the 1st cut from our paycheck. First-fruits = crops, herds, labor for the Israelites AND 1st allotment of our paycheck.

4. 3rd God blesses those who give their first-fruits. Their barns will not be able to hold the harvest. Their wine vats will overflow with wine. This is a picture of abundance & blessing.

5. we can’t out-give God. God blesses those who give. If we honor God with our money, he will honor us with his blessings. You can’t out-give God!

John the Baptist: Luke 3:7-14
1. John the Baptist is preaching. He’s calling people to repentance, produce fruit in keeping with repentance (8). The crowd asks him, what shall we do then (10)? In other words, how do we need to change? How do we get on board with what you’re saying? Tell us what to do.

2. John gave them 3 answers:
* everyone should share clothes & food with the poor (11)
* tax collectors shouldn’t pocket extra money (12)
* soldiers should be content with their wages & not extort money (14)
Each answer relates to money & possessions.

3. think hard. John was not asked about money & possessions. He was asked what they needed to do to demonstrate the fruit of spiritual transformation. John couldn’t talk about spirituality without talking about how to handle money & possessions.

4. John’s point – we won’t fully serve God unless we’ve dethroned the money idol in our lives. Luke 16:13, No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

5. 15% of Jesus’ teaching focused on money & possessions. He spoke more about money than he did about heaven & hell combined.

Jesus: Luke 12:13-21
1. Jesus is with a huge crowd – thousands had gathered (12:1). Someone in the crowd had money on his mind & asked Jesus a question – teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me (13).

2. Jesus knows that money issues are heart issues. He issues a warning about greed – watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (15). In God’s eyes, the one with the most toys doesn’t automatically win. Life is more than money, stuff, possessions, holdings.

3. he tells a parable – read. And then the clincher, this is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.

4. rich toward God, rich toward God, rich toward God. Let that sink in. This is not a matter of income. Of being rich or poor. Lower or middle or higher class. Living in the Dunsthrope area of Portland or in a humble manufactured home in Gresham.

5. rich toward God. What does this mean? The book of Acts tells us so let’s move on…

the early church
Acts 2:45
1. 1 mark of the first church of Christ-followers in Jerusalem was radical generosity! They sold their ‘stuff’ & gave the money to the needy.

2. when the Holy Spirit fills the church, the Holy Spirit will lead the followers of Christ into revolutionary acts of generosity. When God gets a hold of our lives our financial priorities change.

3. instead of a ‘helping others’ sale like we just had 2 weeks ago, we should hold a ‘helping others give-away’ event – sell our stuff & give the money away, bring our stuff & give it away!

Acts 4:32-37
1. here’s more of the same, radical, revolutionary acts of giving. Possessions were shared. Bill, Rae, I’d like to use your mini Cooper this week. Harry, I’d like to use your rain gear. Jeff, I’d like to use your office. When the Holy Spirit moves in our lives suddenly our possessions have less of a grip on our lives!

2. houses were sold. Land was sold. The money was brought to the church leadership. it was given to the poor. Holy Spirit-driven church growth principle – the ‘haves’ share with the ‘have-nots.’

3. good case-in-point = Joe Barney sold a piece of land & gave the money to the apostles.

4. bad case-in-point = Ananias & Sapphira sold a piece of land & lied to the apostles & to the Holy Spirit about what they got for the land. They wanted to look more generous than they were. They died as a result.

5. if this kind of thing happened today, some of us wouldn’t be here. We’d be dead & buried, 6 ft under ground.

6. when the Holy Spirit moves in our lives 1 thing we can count on is a greater desire to give give give. Even radically.

Paul
Galatians 2:10
1. when the hater-of-Christians Saul turned lover-of-Christians Paul, he went before the church leadership in Jerusalem for acceptance. They said, yes, you’re one of us! Followed by remember the poor.

2. faith & giving, faith & money, faith & generosity, faith & compassion are to mark our lives.

Ephesians 4:28
1. I love this verse – quit stealing, get a job, do something useful, make your life count, set aside some of your income to help the needy.

2. to be a follower of Christ means that part of our income goes to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

3. in 2 weeks we are going to take up our annual Miracle Sunday Thanksgiving offering. This offering has averaged $30,000 over the past 10 years. We’re going to give all the money away:
* 10% to Christian workers @ CAC
* $1500 to Josh , Bev Harlan’s grandson who is an Assemblies of God missionary in China, studying the Chinese language so he can teach English as a 2nd language & share Christ with his students
* ½ to dig wells & buy medicine & food in the name of Christ for needy Muslins that the Susu church in Guinea, West Africa are trying to reach
* ½ to CAMA Services, the social relief arm of the C&MA who are involved in working with the needy all around the world

4. we have so much & others have so little. To remember the poor, to write out some big checks, to say “no” to our wants in order to say “yes” to other’s needs is part of what it means to be rich toward God.

2 Corinthians 9:6-11
1. 1st we reap what we sow. Tight-fisted giving = little blessings. Generous, sacrificial giving = huge blessings. Scripture clearly teaches that God’s blessing follows our giving. Giving leads to the goodness of God.

2. 2nd God loves cheerful giving. Giving out of want, gratitude, passion, desire, obedience.

3. 3rd God will meet all our needs in our generous giving.

4. like I’ve already said, we can’t out-give God.

The last word
1. I want you to give. I want all of you to give. I want you to give consistently. I want you to give generously. I want you to give cheerfully. I want you to give sacrificially.

2. some of you don’t give. I want you to start. I want you to get with it.

3. some of you sort-of-give. Token amounts. Not anything like a tithe (10%) of your income. I want you to increase you giving till you get up to a tithe.

4. some of you have lots of money. Some of you have some money. Some of you have very little money. Doesn’t matter how much or how little you have. I want you to give. I want you to follow the advice & model of Solomon, John the Baptist, Jesus, the early church & Paul.

5. I believe that your 1st responsibility for giving is right here, your own church. I want you to give to our church. Our vision, our ministry will be limited by your lack of giving & multiplied by your generous giving.

6. I have no trouble looking all of you in the eye & saying as your pastor – I want you to give! Why? Because…
* I want what’s spiritually best for your life
* I want God to bless you
* I want you to learn to trust in God rather than in your bank account
* I want you to experience how God takes care of us when we give
* I want you to experience the joy of giving to others
* I want you to experience the joy of seeing your dollars make a difference in someone’s life
* I want you to be a part of touching our community & our world for Christ
* I want you to know the joy of being rich toward God!

7. we have 7 weeks left in 2005. I want you to use those weeks to bring your giving up to the level that will please God.