A Matter of the Heart (10.25.15) 3
Sermon Title: A Matter of the Heart 10.25.15
Matthew 6:19-21
19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,where moths and vermin destroy,and where thieves break in and steal.20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
1 Timothy 6:17-19
17Command those who are richin this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth,which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds,and to be generous and willing to share.19In this way they will lay up treasure for themselvesas a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold ofthe life that is truly life.
I. My dad thinks he is really funny, maybe that is where I get it. As I have shared before, he has had several heart surgeries. In one of them, they took the radial artery out of his left arm to use it as a bypass. This is the artery that people use to get your pulse when getting it from your wrist.
a. I can never get it on my wrist, let's all try that right now. Where I can get it is on my neck. Because my dad had the surgery removing his left radial artery, his pulse could no longer be taken on that wrist. So, thinking he is hilarious, when a nurse, or any health care professional asks for his wrist to get his pulse, which arm do you think he gives them? Yes the one without a radial artery. He gets blank stares, a laugh, or an eye roll every time!
b. This morning we are launching into our Extravagant Generosity campaign. As I pondered my dad's funny trick, I realized that this is often what we do in normal stewardship campaigns. We look for a spiritual pulse in the wrong place. We start discussions about giving with the pocket book. The problem is that generosity does not start in our pocket books but in our hearts! Much more that wanting us to selectively be generous toward certain things at certain times, God wants us to be a generous people.
c. I have read and heard form servers that the worst shift to work is Sunday brunch. Why, because church people are stingy! That is a travesty. To fix it we do not just need to go out and over tip our servers, although that may be a good start. To fix it we need to check our hearts. If we are reflecting the generosity of a God who came down here not to be served but to serve as a ransom for many, we should be should we be generous people!
d. As we dive into this passage in the tail end of Paul's fist letter to Timothy, let's check our hearts! If the heart of generosity is a matter of the heart what does a generous heart look like? To answer this question, we are going to talk about some problems that can occur with our physical hearts and discover what spiritual parallels they may have.
II. In 1 Timothy, Paul encourages those who are rich in the present age to trust in God, not riches.
a. When we hope in wealth, whether it is a lot of wealth or a modest amount, we have a tendency to hoard it. We have a scarcity mindset instead of an abundance mindset. When our arteries are functioning properly, blood flows through them supplying oxygen to the heart muscle. When our souls are properly functioning wealth flows through us so that the heart muscle of the body of Christ can be fed and go out on mission.
b. There are many things that lead up to plaque buildup in the arteries of our physical hearts, some of which we really do not understand. What we do understand is that trusting in wealth will cause us to be very reticent to give it away. Our hesitance is often a symptom of seeking wealth for its own sake. Put differently, when we trust in wealth we will hoard it and it will build up. This is not healthy for ourselves, or for the body of Christ.
c. It is not healthy for our own souls because we are putting our trust in something that is so uncertain! We do not know what the future will bring in terms of our financial investments. We are also, it is investing in, putting our hearts into, something that does not lead to abundant life here and now or eternal life in the future. Instead, as John Maxwell says, we need to be rivers not reservoirs. Instead of storing stuff up for ourselves, just as water flows through a river, material blessings are meant to flow through us to further God's kingdom here on earth. In the words of Jesus "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,where moths and vermin destroy,and where thieves break in and steal.But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Trusting the Lord is the best remedy for being terrified of not having enough!
III. That trust will also remove from us an entitlement mentality and give us one of being entrusted.
a. Another problem we can have with our hearts are leaky valves. The problem here is that our arteries can be flowing just fine, but the blood is not getting to the right place because it is leaking out. In the same way, we can be rivers that do not hold to tightly to our earthly treasures but the passions of our souls can leak out into things we feel entitled to!
b. Just look at many of the advertisements out there. Buy our product, because your worth it, you deserve it, the list could go on. I remember watching a commercial that said something like this and thinking, how do I deserve that? I'm just sitting here watching TV. I began to chew on this message, thinking about 'getting what you deserve' theologically, an occupational hazard. I realized how anti gospel and anti joy-filled it is. It is anti gospel because imagine if Jesus came down and demanded the red carpet treatment He deserved instead of giving us the savior we need? I'm thankful that I do not get from God the judgment I deserve. Instead, in an act of irrational generosity, I am given the savior I need!
c. That is what generous hearts do. They do not worry about what they are entitled to. Instead they joyfully use what they have been entrusted with. Entitlement says what do I deserve whereas entrustment says what can I give to further His kingdom. It is in being a part of giving others what they don't deserve that we find true joy! I heard a story about giving others more than they deserve by pastor Craig Groeschel. Craig is the pastor of a mega church, so he is a very public figure. There are many people who know him but he does not know them just by the nature of his position and the size of the church. He admits that, in the past, he has struggled with being generous. One of the things that he has been convicted to do in becoming more generous is 'round up.' So if you get a bill and your tip is going to end up being 8.15 round up and give the person a ten dollar bill.
d. He was driving one day and stopped in at a drive in fast food place to get a pop, he calls them soda's but we can forgive him because he is not from Ohio. The bill was a buck fifty but all he had was a five dollar bill. He thought, round up, and told the young man serving him to keep it. The young man was stunned! What Craig didn't know was that this young man knew who he was and he did not like him. This young man was very bitter toward Christianity and he knew Craig was the pastor of a big church. This extravagant generosity shook this young man's world! So much so that he thought, I got to check this out. So he went to the church Craig pastors, learned about what it means to be a follower of Christ, and decided to give his life to Jesus and is now a dedicated Christian!
e. Does that mean that every time we over tip someone they are going to give their life to Christ? No, but we have been given much more than we deserve in terms of salvation by grace through Jesus Christ. When we reflect that by giving others more than they deserve in terms of our time our money and our compassion it is a light in a very dark and selfish world! That's why we give to other people and to the church. Because we are not entitled but entrusted. Paul tells us that God has richly provided, entrusted, us with everything for our enjoyment. Deep true enjoyment is not found in investing our money in stuff and experiences that will not last. Instead true contentment comes from investing in the kingdom of heaven.
IV. A kingdom which we are all called to become agents of! So often, when churches, or other organizations talk about money it feels very coercive. A generous heart is not coerced but called!
a. Another problem that can occur with one's heart is an irregular heartbeat. It can be exhausting to have a heart that does not have a regular beat. In the same way, if we feel coerced sometimes it can cause is to give our money to get the guilt monkey off our backs. However, it very rarely leads to regular giving.
b. Paul encourages us to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share. There is something about being generous on a regular basis that is life transforming. It enables us to not just do generous things but to become generous people. If we are regularly generous in small ways we will be more open to God calling us to be generous in big ways. This generosity does not depend on our income!
c. Allan Bevere is a Methodist pastor I met in Akron. Along with being a pastor, he is a professor at Ashland theological seminary. He has been invited to Cuba several times to help teach some Cuban Methodist pastors. On one trip he was invited to eat dinner at one of the pastor's homes. They presented a meal of chicken and some traditional Cuban side dishes. They blessed the meal and Alan noticed that the host and hostess were not eating. He asked his translator what's going on and the translator said that in order to feed us this extravagant meal they had to give up food for a day so there would be enough for us.
d. A myth that we tell ourselves is that extravagant generosity starts in our pocket book. We say, when I get more money, when my portfolio gets a little better, then I'll be generous! This is a lie because if we are stingy with the financial, time, and talent resources we have now, we will be stingy if we receive more. We are all called to have a hearts on fire. Hearts that drive us to extravagant generosity for the kingdom of God. Generosity starts with a choice to honor the giver of the gifts over the gifts themselves. A choice to trust God with all our resources. A choice to become a part of the in breaking kingdom of God here on earth. Put shortly, Brothers and sisters in Christ, generosity starts in the heart!
V. So where are our hearts? Are they clogged up with stuff because of a lack of trust? Are they leaking, investing in treasures that will not last? Are they irregular only being generous when coerced?
a. Or are they healthy and beating strong! A heart that trusts not in our own wealth but in our Father in heaven who is extravagantly generous to us. Extravagantly generous by sending His Son to us. Who came down to earth and did not demand what He was entitled to but died for our sins and entrusted us with that message. A message that the Holy Spirit Calls us to live out not by 'paying dues' to the church or giving only when we feel coerced. Instead we are called to have a heart the reflects the generosity of our Father in heaven who did not even spare His son but gave Him up for us all! An extravagantly generous heart that willingly and joyfully gives itself to participate in spreading God's kingdom here on earth!
VI. Let us pray: Lord give us hearts that express your generosity. Give us hearts that will enable people to know we are Christians by our love!
VII. Benediction: Let us go forth hearts beating strong with generosity that reflects the sacrificial love of our Father in heaven through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit!