Confronting Our Poverty of Spirit
Luke 16:19-31
It is for freedom that Christ set you free. Do not yoke yourself to the burden of debt through slavery. At the foundation of this is that all of the blessings of heaven are available to the children of God. But so many of the children of God continue to live on the meager rations of earth. So for the next three weeks, we’re going to be confronting the obstacles that stand in the way of financial freedom. The first is the poverty of Spirit which is the cancer of selfishness. The second is the Poverty of Mind which is the cancer of fear. The third is the poverty of means which is connected to the cancer of consumerism.
Opening prayer: Jesus, you came to literally save us, heal us and make us well in every single area of our life. So Lord we open our finances again to you for you to work your will. And we pray this is your incredible name.
In every promise of God throughout all the Scriptures, we have the promise of material blessing. When God told the Israelites that he was going to take them to a land of promise, he wasn’t talking about a spiritual place but a physical place. He described this land of promise as a land of milk and honey. Now Israel was made up of herders and farmers in a very arid climate. Because of this climate, herders and farmers were always at odds with each other because of the limited resources. So God says I am going to take you to this land which is of such abundance that you’re no longer going to have to fight over resources. The herder will have plenty of land and grass for their animals (that’s what the milk is referring to because it’s the end product of abundance of land and grass to feed the animals). The farmers will have more than enough land to farm and thus enough crops. That’s what the honey refers to, the crop which is the end product produced. So the blessing and promise of God is for more than enough resources for everyone, the herder and the farmer.
Deut. 28 says “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God. You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. (those who live in the city and those of us who live in the suburbs) The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.” God’s blessing isn’t about a blessing after you die or even the gift of eternal life but rather is about His material blessing in your life today! Now all of this is contingent on one word: “If”. If you follow God and obey his laws, then he will bless your life materially.
Now one thing we need to understand is that in those days, people were living on a subsistence level. Each day was about finding, growing or producing enough food for you and your family. When God speaks of blessings, he’s talking about needs and necessities rather than wants. He’s talking about food, clothing, shelter and work and not an iphone, HD TV, a larger house, a Blackberry or the latest model Lexus or Caddy. Now some people say that the promises of these material blessings are only in the Old Testament. But Listen to Matthew 6: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Well, what are these things? Look at the list above these verses. It’s about clothing, food and drink, if you seek first the kingdom of God. Now the Bible has these promises of material blessings all throughout but the key for the people of God is to understand the purpose of wealth.
Today, we’re going to look at the 14th, 15th, and 16th chapter of Luke. These three chapters are Jesus’ theology of wealth and possessions. In these verses, Jesus is confronting the religious leaders of his day, the Pharisees, who tended to be pretty well to do but they didn’t understand the purpose of wealth. They had fallen into the trap of becoming lovers of money. Now there’s nothing wrong with having money but there is something fundamentally wrong when you become a lover of money. So Jesus uses the Pharisees as the counter example of kingdom economics. Every story and parable in these chapters are examples of how not to approach, relate to and use money in your life, all of which hit home with the Pharisees. Now here’s the purpose of wealth. Jesus is eating in the home of a rich Pharisee and says, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” The purpose of wealth is to use the resources God has given us to bring the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind to the party of God so they may come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior and receive eternal life.
In Deut 24:19-22, God initiates the practice of gleaning for the poor. “When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf (that is, there ‘s still some hay or crops left on the ground which have yet to be harvested), do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.” The people who are the recipients of this fallen produce are those who are unable to provide for themselves. “When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.” The purpose of wealth is that other’s needs might be met in the world. That is God’s economy.
Now when you talk about understanding wealth, you’re talking about trust. When you have the means to provide for others, what we’re really talking about is trusting God. All wealth is about building an eternal trust. Luke 16:10, "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” Now remember, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees about using their wealth to bring the poor and the crippled to the table. If you can’t be trusted with the little you have, then God is not going to trust you with much.
When I was appointed to Pearl River UMC, they had a budget of $49,000. By the end of the year, we had received $65,000 and had $13,000 in the bank, the first time this church ever had that much money in the bank. This was a church whose leaders told me they remembered the days when they had to choose between paying the pastor or the electric bill. What do you think they wanted to do with that money? Sit on it. But I knew this was a challenge God has set before us. I told them God was testing us to see if we are faithful and trustworthy with the little, that is, money and if so, he would trust us with great things in the kingdom, more people’s lives. The church had a horrible looking hand painted sign along the road and so I proposed to spend $9,000 on a new, lighted sign with movable text. They resisted but finally relented. We got that sign and the following year worship attendance grew from 75 to almost 100 and our budget grew from $49,000 to $98,000. If you cannot be trusted with worldly wealth, then who is going to trust you with riches? Don’t be desiring more if you are not being faithful with the little of what you have right now in bringing the poor, the widow, the orphan and the crippled to God’s table.
All this is based on the idea of that everything belongs to God. Your house, your car, the clothes you’re wearing all come from God. And if you cannot be trustworthy with someone else’s property then how can you ever be given property of your own? Probably the greatest inhibitor to wealth is the cancer of selfishness, because wealth begins with building a trust with God. In our Scripture today we learn three things. First, with Lazarus, poverty risks the body but prosperity risks the soul. The rich man went to hell because he served his wealth to serve himself rather using his wealth to serve God’s purpose. So often, we become so insulated by our material comforts in life that we never really take material and spiritual inventory of our soul. We become so removed and gain such a sense of false security through possessions that we never take a hard look at our soul.
In the Book of Revelation, there is the church of Laodocia about whom God says, You are neither hot or cold and because of that, I am going to spit you out of my mouth. “You say, ’I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’” That’s the danger of wealth that it becomes your god and you no longer realize your need for God. “But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” The cancer of selfishness is the ultimate poverty of all. From the Hebrew perspective, life was meant to be lived for God. And if this life you are living is not centered on God and lived for God then you’re as good as dead because there is no other way to live. Where there is selfishness, the spirit of God cannot exist. So God says here “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”
What combats this cancer of selfishness is the practice of lifelong generosity. Proverbs 3:9-11 says, “Honor the Lord with your wealth with the best part of everything that your land produces.” For those of us who are not herders or farmers, we need to ask, “What is the best part what God gives us that we need to give back to him?” “Then he will fill your barns to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine.” What does that mean? I first have to trust God and be faithful to His priority. Now the Bible talks about giving the Lord’s tithe and our offerings. The tithe is the first 10% of everything that comes off our lands or out of our paycheck. You see, people who are blessed are people who are generous. Warren Buffet and Bill and Linda Gates are beginning to understand this as they are giving billions of dollars to the Gates Foundation to serve the needs of the poor.
I am living in the blessings of God in all areas of my life but I had to resolve this issue of first bringing the fullness of God’s tithe. When I was in college and seminary, I worked anywhere from 15-40 hours a week while going to school full-time. I did so because my goal was to graduate from seminary debt free while the average seminarian today has a debt of more than $40,000 and gets paid less than $25,000 in their first church. I did not tithe. I saved my money. And when I became the associate pastor at Rayne Memorial on St. Charles Ave. n 1989, I made $14,595. I knew I had a choice to make: to trust God and begin to tithe or to only teach and preach about it and not live it. I had just bought my first house which needed some work and didn’t have any furniture. I was driving an 11 year old car and had $7,500 in debt from college loans. And yet I made the choice to give the first 10% of each of my paychecks back to God. And when Giovanna and I first talked about marriage, I told her the one non-negotiable was my commitment to tithe. And my commitment was going to have to be our commitment. As a result of that decision, we have experienced the blessings of God in every area of our life.
Our offerings are what we give to the Lord over and above the tithe. What many of us need to realize is that we can’t out-give God. There are three practices of lifelong generosity. The first is simplicity. One of things we have to do is de-clutter. Katrina helped many of us with this for those of us who had homes flooded. There’s nothing to let you know how much useless and needless stuff we have accumulated than when you have to drag it out to the curb with all your other possessions because it’s been ruined by the flood waters. And yet there is something in us that continues to want to accumulate. How many of you since Katrina have found yourself falling back into old habits of buying stuff that you really don’t need and probably will never use? So let me ask you, “What kind of things could you give up right now to have greater freedom?” It could be not going out to eat as much, cutting back on the number of songs you download, cutting out the number of premium channels on cable. Think for just a moment what God could do with that money, but more importantly, with your heart as it is in line with God.
The average credit card is 24% interest. Debt is not our friend. We should all commit to living debt free. Anyone who goes to those cash advance places is paying up to 300% interest. Write down right now how much debt you think you have. One of your assignments for today is to go home and add up all your debt. Most people miss it by half. Know how much debt you have. The only debt you have to leave out is your house which is an appreciable asset. But also don’t borrow against your house. Instead, simplify your life in as many ways as possible. How can you simplify so that you can live more freely.
The second action is to sell. What do I have at home that I can sell, like the Dewalt grinder I’m not using. I once had a former church member sell an antique car which he barely drove and though it was fully restored, it was costing him more and more to keep it that way. What are the things that we have which are just sitting around and we rarely use?
The third way of generosity is through serving, using your spiritual gifts and serving in ministry to serve others in the name of Jesus.
Too often we only think about how little we have. Instead think of how you can simplify, what you can sell and how you can serve. And in those three ways, you can use wealth to bring the poor, the orphan, the widow and the crippled to the table of the Lord. The Bible promises material blessings but it’s based first on this: seek first the kingdom of God, the purpose of God and the mission of God in the world and you’ll never have to worry because all of these things will be added unto you. Jesus show the spirit of generosity when he gave his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. What are you willing to give up, sell or sacrifice for the sake of Jesus Christ and His mission?
