Today we are making a transition. Over the last while we have been in our “Attender or Belonger” series learning about the blessings of being part of a church family. Today, we are making a shift to a different series. One of the many things I love about the Gospel is that as we read the Word of God and as we understand the many aspects of the Gospel, there is such a wonder and a mystery to the Gospel of God as we learn about who God is and we worship Him. But at the same time we also learn that there is practicableness to the Gospel and a relevance to it that is so real and so tangible that it connects to our everyday lives. This series is going to touch on that practicableness and relevance as we talk about money.
This morning we are going be starting a new four-week series called “Money Matters.” I am meaning this in a couple of different ways. First, just the very different matters of money. And second, the fact that “money matters”. In this series we will be seeking God’s wisdom on money by searching to see why it matters. We want to explore how this connects to us on a whole variety of levels.
There are levels that we are aware of and we see just sort of intuitively on a daily basis as we look at our bank accounts and as we look at our wallets we recognize the relevance of this and the practicalities of this on those levels. But there also deeper levels that money connects with us sometimes in ways that we are not fully aware of or conscious of.
As I was thinking about this series I thought that this is probably one of the most difficult topics for us to talk about as Christians. Would that be fair to say? As I was thinking about it, in general we can talk about a lot of different subjects. We can talk about relationships in certain ways. We can talk about our travels and recent trips that we’ve made. We can talk about purchases that we’ve made and those kinds of things. We can talk about our favourite sports teams. We can talk about challenges in our relationships or intimacy issues in our relationships. We can even talk about politics.
But there’s just something unique that when it comes to talking about money. When it comes to talking about money we just sort of get quiet. We aren’t really open about it and we just kind of muddle our way through it on our own. It is a topic that we don’t talk well about. Is that fair to say? This has definitely been true for what I have seen with my life as I have related with others. It seems to be this private area in our lives, and in many ways we try to separate it from our faith. We sort of say “This is the God aspect of my life and this is the financial or business aspect of my life” and we try to keep them kind of separate.
My contention would be that we have probably meshed these two together more than we realize. I mean if you have ever prayed for the sale of a house you have meshed these two things together. If you have ever prayed about a major purchase of something (i.e. a new electronic gadget, vehicle, recreational vehicle, etc.) you have meshed God and money together. And if we are really honest, when we are talking to God about these types of situations regarding money we are usually asking God to bless these situations in the direction that we want to go. We want God to bless our money but we really don’t want give Him full control of it do we? We still want to hold onto to some control of our money don’t we?
But what about the open-handedness of just coming before the Father and saying “All of this is Yours and God I want to honour You with everything.” That is what we want to talk about over the next several weeks as we dig into this topic of having a desire to honour God with our money. What does that look like and what are some of the things that challenge us in this area? We are going to begin this series by looking at the attitude of ownership. You know, who owns our money? Our answer to this question determines not only what we will give to God but how we will treat Him too.
Our text this morning is going to 1 Chronicles 29. This chapter is about the gifts for building the temple. The first nine verses specifically talk about the different gifts that were given. Then verses 10 to 20 are David’s prayer of praise and thanksgiving for the incredible generosity of the people. This is where we will be focussing our attention this morning. In verses 10 to 12 David praises God for who He is. He says:
“Praise be to you, LORD, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honour come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.”
Then in verses 13-16, David tells us why he and the people gave to God and this is very important. In these verses David prays to God:
“Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. O LORD our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.”
David said he gave – because he believed the money belonged to God to begin with. The money hadn’t been David’s. The offerings hadn’t belonged to the people. Everything belonged to God. Why is that important? Well, first – it’s true. And David acknowledged it by saying in verse 14:
“… who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.” (1 Chronicles 29:14)
Or as James in the New Testament wrote:
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)
Why is that true? Why would I believe that everything I have comes from God? A scientist once approached God and said, “Listen, we’ve decided we no longer need you. Nowadays, we can clone people, transplant hearts and do all kinds of things that were once considered miraculous.” God patiently heard him out, and then said, “All right. To see whether or not you still need me, why don’t we have a man making contest?” “Okay, great!” the scientist said. “Now we’re going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam,” God said. “That’s fine,” replied the scientist, and bent to scoop up a handful of dirt. “Whoa,” God said, shaking his head. “Not so fast, pal. You get your own dirt.”
The point is this: we can’t do ANYTHING without using something God has created. Whether it’s the dirt at our feet, the metal in the ground or any other commodity that we might use to make a living – it was all created by God. Even our skills, our intellect, our physical ability: they’re all from God because God created us in His image. All of the things that we use to make a living … have been given to us. Now, this idea that God has given us everything is NOT ONLY true… it is pivotal It’s critical. It’s highly important. BECAUSE it effects how we behave with what we have. It effects how we TREAT God.
Several years ago at a conference John Maxwell told the story of a congressman who took his son to McDonald’s. The father bought his son a Coke and a large order of fries and they went and sat down at one of those table not built big enough for people to sit in. The father took a drink of his Coke and reached over to get a fry from his son, and his son put his hands around the fries and pulled them back. The father was in a state of shock for a moment. He could not believe what had just happened.
And as he sat there he started thinking to himself, “Doesn’t my son realize I’m the one who gave him those fries in the first place? Doesn’t he realize I can take those fries away from him any time I want? Doesn’t he realize I can go up to the counter and I’ve got enough money I can buy all the fries I want? I can tell the people at the counter, ‘Go out there and bury my son in French fries.’ Doesn’t my son realize I don’t need any of his fries? I can go get my own.”
As the Congressman thought about it, one or two fries really would not have made much of a difference for him that day. What he wanted was for his son to invite him into the wonderful little world he had made possible for his son.
And then the congressman realized: his son was simply acting like he’d been acting with God. His son had forgotten who bought the fries to begin with. And BECAUSE he had forgotten who really – by right – OWNED the fries he treated his father badly.
That doesn’t just happen to young boys. It can happen to any one of us when we forget that God truly owns all that we possess. And there are two reasons why this is true. First, there is the “Golden Rule” – He who owns the gold makes the rules. That little boy thought HE owned the fries; therefore he believed he had the right to decide whether his dad deserved them. If we who are Christians believe we “own” our money then we get to decide NOT ONLY whether God gets a share… but what is done with that share, right? But if God owns it all then He gets to decides what happens with our money, right?
The second reason we MUST believe that what we own actually belongs to God is because of… the “Praise Factor.” He who owns the gold gets the praise If I “OWN” my money… if the money I have BELONGS to me… then the more I give the more likely I am to receive praise. And thus, the richer I am and the more I’m capable of giving the more acknowledgment I’m likely to receive. Notice what David says in 1 Chronicles 29 verses 16 and 20:
“(16) O LORD our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you… (20) Then David said to the whole assembly, ‘Praise the LORD your God.’ So they all praised the LORD, the God of their fathers; they bowed low and fell prostrate before the LORD and the king.”
They praised God for the Temple that was to be built. They praised God for His kindness to them as a people. BUT most importantly, they praised God for the abundance of the offerings they gave. David’s one focus was that God should receive the praise for the offering that was given.
This idea – that God owns all our possessions – is a critical measure of our spiritual maturity. This truth should not only affect how I give my offering to God every Sunday… it should effect the very way I handle my finances throughout the week. Since all my money belongs to God, I should examine everything I buy, rent or lease asking if such an expenditure would please Him.
Thus, it is essential for we who are Christians to realize our possessions belong to God. In fact it is SO critical a measure of our spiritual maturity that King David said God “tests us” in this. LOOK AGAIN at 1 Chronicles 29:17
“I know, my God, that you TEST the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.”
DAVID SAW HIS OFFERING AS A TEST OF THE HEART. Let’s be honest… money is a big test us. We can be asked to give of our time and we’ll gladly give of our spare time to help in various projects. We can be asked to share our talents and we’ll gladly sing, teach or whatever. But when we are asked to give of our money … now we’re getting personal.
Now don’t get me wrong… how much we give monetarily WILL NOT effect our salvation. We can be saved without ever giving a dime. However, until we’re prepared to acknowledge that God owns everything and we are willing to commit ourselves to giving back to God a portion of our income we haven’t begun to be mature in our faith. Jesus said in Matthew 6:21
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Jesus wants what our heart to be fully committed to Him. And one of the ways that we do that is by fully committing our treasure/our money to Him.
We give to God because God owns it all. Everything we have comes from God. This truth is critical because it affects how we behave and how we treat God. If we own everything then we get to decide what is done with what we have and we get the praise when we give any of it away BUT if God owns everything then He alone gets to decide what is down with what we have and He alone gets all the praise.
Here is the challenge that I want to leave us with this morning:
Over the next 4 weeks of this series I want to challenge us to consciously think about who owns everything that we have and then take a moment to thank and praise God for those things.
Here is how this will look: when you wake up in the morning thank God for providing the bed that you slept in, as you take a shower thank God for providing the hot water, as you eat breakfast thank God for providing the food, when you get into your car to go to work thank God for providing your vehicle and so on.
I believe as we do this throughout our day it will affect the way we view and use what God has give us. We will recognize His ownership of everything and we will become much more willing to share it and give it away because it doesn’t belong to us to begin with!
