"Who's in Charge
" Sermon Transcript for August 12, 2001 By Rev. Mike BeckScripture Reading: Luke 18: 18-30
I want to continue this morning a three-part sermon series on stewardship that will conclude next week. We began last week by looking at the fact that "it all begins with love". It doesn’t begin with commands, "You ought to do this, you ought to do that". It begins with a love response on our part for what God has done for us. And I asked you to consider memorizing this quote, "You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving." Today God asks us to look within our hearts to examine some hard questions: Who is it that’s really in charge of my life? Who calls the shots when it comes to my decisions? Who or what gets first allegiance as evidenced not by what I say but if you would look at two things, if you would look at my calender and if you would look at my checkbook, who or what get’s first allegiance?
I recently came across this short article in a church newsletter. It goes like this:
"Funny, isn’t it, how $8.20 looks so huge when you put it in the church offering, and so small when you spend it at the grocery store? Funny, isn’t it, how generous an hour looks when you offer it to the service of God, but how small when you want to play bridge or golf or tennis? Funny, isn’t it, how tough it is to read a chapter or two in the Bible, but how easy it is to read several hundred pages in a best-selling novel? Funny, isn’t it, how we say we don’t know what to say to God when we pray, yet we can go on for hours over the telephone? Funny, isn’t it, how we can’t seem to fit that church event into our schedule, even though it was announced weeks in advance, yet we are able to adjust for that last minute social invitation or to fit in that ball game? Funny, isn’t it? No, it’s not funny. It just reflects our way of living these days, mixed up priorities and all."
How many of you like to watch, "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire"? Let me see your hands. I like that show. I like to play along. I’m going to start with a "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" question today. You can answer A, B, C, or D. I guess we have to say because of God’s grace you’ve got unlimited lifelines. Which answer best fits where you are today in terms of your faith?
A. Are you considering Christ? Here at Grace we want people to know that it’s very okay to be a seeker. I’ll never forget the small group I was in and we were introducing ourselves. And a young man with great honesty simply said, "I’m not yet a believer. I’m seeking after the truth." And I thought, man, there’s a person God’s going to honor that kind of honesty. And for those, and there may be some here today, who are considering Christ, we must always make those persons feel very welcome within our doors.
B. Convenient Christianity. For these folks their faith is kind of like an insurance policy. They want to make sure they’ve got somebody to marry their kids, to visit them when their sick, to say a few nice words over them when they die, but that’s about as far as it goes. To use the title of a sermon I preached a few years ago, these kind of folks want about a "quarter’s work of God". No more. Just a convenient Christianity.
C. Consumer Christianity. These folks want their needs met. They will shop around for the best music and the best preaching. They’ll attend all the gospel concerts and the religious gatherings. But they’re not very much in to Christian service. They’re more consumer Christians.
D. And I hope most of you hearing my words today can honestly answer "D". Persons who are truly committed to Christ. These persons understand that it cost something to follow Jesus. They understand the cross. They understand the call to discipleship.
So where are you at out there this morning? Considering Christ? Convenient Christianity? Consumer Christianity? Or truly committed to Christ? Let’s let God speak to us through our Scripture lesson today. I’m going to work back through it. It begins by saying a certain ruler asked Him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" His inquiring is a good thing. He’s got the right question. He just isn’t going to like the answer. "Why do you call me good?," Jesus answered. "No one is good except God alone? You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steel, do not give false testimony, honor your Father and Mother. All of those I have kept since I was a boy," he said. Now, friends, your good works are important. Your good works are a response of love to what God has done for you. But if you’re counting on your good works by themselves getting you into heaven, you’re going to be awful disappointed when that day comes. Because the Bible says our good works are "as filthy rags in the eyes of the Holy God." It’s only through faith in what God has done for us. This man’s good works. He’s kept the commandments. But he’s going to find out that’s not enough. "And when Jesus heard this he said to the man, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in Heaven. And then come and follow me." Ouch! Those are hard words! Does Jesus say to you and me the same thing he said to this man? Sell everything you have and give it to the poor?
Those of you who are attending the seminar with John Maxwell, he’s pretty blunt and we’re not use to that. He’s talking in that seminar to a bunch of preachers which give’s him a bunch of liberty to say things he wouldn’t necessarily say that way to another audience, but he’s pretty blunt. He doesn’t sugar coat his understanding of the truth. And Jesus here is pretty blunt to this man. It’s the only place in Scripture that Jesus makes this statement. And He doesn’t make it to the crowd, He makes it only to this one man. Why did He tell this man, "Go sell everything you have and give it to the poor?" Because Jesus could look within this man’s heart and Jesus knew who was number one. The first commandment is, "You shall have no other God’s before me." And Jesus knew this man’s God was his possessions and his bank account, and so Jesus said to him, "If you want eternal life, you’ve got to get this out of the way because it’s standing between you and God." And when the man heard this he became very sad because he was a man of great wealth.
Now some of you may be hearing these words today and you’re thinking, "I’m not rich. Well, there’s a few people here at Grace, but you know, I don’t fall into this category of being wealthy." I wonder if the way God looks at the whole world, if God doesn’t say to us today, every single one of you here at Grace Church are people of great wealth when we look at the world as a whole. Indeed, Jesus said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." Friends, your money and your possessions won’t keep you out of Heaven. But your attitude about those things can! And on this matter of Jesus saying, "It’s hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." It says then those who heard this asked, "Well, who can be saved?" And Jesus replied, "What is impossible with me, is possible with God."
On that eye of the needle thing, I am like many of you. I thought for a long time that Jesus was talking about a sewing needle and I knew there’s no way a camel’s going to go through the eye of a sewing needle. But on my first trip to Israel, I understood what Jesus was saying here. Because there are large gates going in to the city of Jerusalem. But in many of those gates, built in to the large gate that may be 20 feet tall is a small little door about 4 feet tall designed to keep the animals out. And that small door and the large door is what was called the eye of the needle. Now, a camel could get through that. But do you know how the camel had to get through? He had to get down on his knees and shuffle through. He couldn’t just easily walk through. Isn’t that true for each one of us in terms of our entering into the Kingdom of God?
In Verse 28 it says Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you." And Peter had! Peter in all likelihood had a wife and children. He had left a lucrative business to follow Christ. And I would ask each of us to look within our own lives. What have we truly sacrificed for the sake of the Kingdom of God? "I tell you the truth," Jesus said to him, "no one who’s left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the Kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and in the age to come, eternal life." As long as I am your pastor, you’ll hear me say it costs something to be a follower of Jesus Christ. But these versus also remind us there is a good side of that. There is much to be gained in the way of abundant life now and as Jesus tells Peter, eternal life in the age to come.
It was Jim Elliott, a missionary to the Indians of South America, who was martyred while on the mission field who made this quote. I’ve got it on a little stand in my office. "He is no fool", Jim Elliott said, "who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." That’s the paradox of the Gospel. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep in exchange for what he cannot lose. The Bible teaches from beginning to end that everything we have is a gift from God. There is no such thing as a "self-made man". If we have been blessed, if we have money in the bank, if we have possessions it’s because God has given us good health and talent and abilities. There is no such thing as a "self-made man". In actuality, friends, we own nothing! John Bailey in his book about death writes, "I’ve never yet seen a Hearse pulling a U-Haul!" And yet as we chuckle at that, a lot of you know people who are living their life as if the funeral director is going to somehow hook on a U-Haul to the hearse. So much as been lost by our attempts to hang on to that which we cannot keep and which in reality is not ours.
Dr. John Maxwell lists in his "10 Principles For Giving" that our life is to be like a river, not a reservoir. Let me ask you a question. Think about that image for a minute. Is your life a reservoir just collecting things or is it a river into which things flow in but also flow out? Two quotes that I think are so excellent, "God will give to us what He knows will flow through us." Think about that. That’s good! God will give to us what He knows will flow through us. And another quote, "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. In Luke 6:38, Jesus said, "Give and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."
The reason that this question, "Who is in charge?" is so important is the truth of Jesus’ words on the Sermon on the Mount. He nailed it on the head when He said, "Where your treasure is," take it to the bank, "that’s were your heart will be also." Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
So in closing, what does your checkbook and what does your date book really reveal about your love for God? Does God get the "first-fruits" or does God get the leftovers? What does your giving reveal about who is really number one in your life? Let’s pray, "Oh, Lord, as we reflect on these questions we thank you that you know our hearts. It’s not for us to evaluate any one other than ourselves. For some here at Grace Church, Lord, who may be giving the least may in reality be giving most. And others who it appears outwardly are giving the most, may not be giving nearly as much as others who in dollars are giving less. You know our heart, Oh God, and we just want to say to you as we reflect on these hard questions, help us Lord through the power of your spirit to each day make a step forward to our honestly being able to say you are in first place, oh Lord, in my life. For Christ’s sake, and for the advancement of your Kingdom, we pray these things. Amen."
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