So Many Reasons…

Commitment Sunday 2011 – So Many Reasons…
Sycamore Creek Church
May 15, 2011
Tom Arthur

Peace, Friends!

Why do you give money to Sycamore Creek Church or any other mission or ministry?  Why not hang on to all that you make?  I’ve been here at SCC for a little less than two years, and I’ve attempted to answer that question on several occasions, but lately through some of the feedback you’ve given me and some that I’ve gotten from mentors, I’ve realized that my own answer to that question tends to be a little too narrow.  I tend to answer that question solely based on what motivates me personally to give generously.

Break the Power

What motivates me to give generously has to do with breaking the power that money has over me.  Money has a kind of power.  I experience it as a kind of seduction.  It is remarkably similar to a kind of sexual seduction.  It tells me that if I have more of what I want, my body will be happy, and I will be happy.  The problem with this seduction is that it is a lie.

I think a verse that speaks to the seductive power of money is 1 Timothy 6:10 which says, “For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil.”  You may have heard this verse translated as “the love of money is the root of all evil.”  That’s how the KJV translated it, but it’s a faulty translation based on an unreliable manuscript.  But nonetheless, the love of money does lead to all kinds of evil, and I am personally motivated to not be sucked into all those kinds of evil.

So what kind of evil are we talking about?  I’d say greed.  And for me, greed is a kind of discontentment with what I have.  Greed leads me to ignore important things and seek unimportant things.  Greed tells me that good is better than great.  Greed is a kind of seduction that answers the question, “How much is enough” with “Just a little bit more.”  I find this to be true especially when I have money in my pocket.  The old saying is true, “Money burns a hole in the pocket.”  When I have a lot of extra money I become focused on what I want.  I think about the next thing I want to buy.  I become discontent with what I have.

Sarah and I recently bought a new car.  With the help of a generous loan from family, we finally broke down and purchased a new car.  I was hoping to get a lot more miles on our old car, but it just wasn’t going to do it.  When it came to having to pull a fuse under the hood to make the lights turn off, and putting the fuse back in to make them turn back on, we realized it just wasn’t going to work.  So I spent time researching a new car.  This occupied my time for a good many weeks.  I read all about new cars.  I poured over data on Consumer Reports.  I read a book about negotiating for a new car.  I was a little obsessed, but eventually I picked a car, and we bought it.  You’d think that after I made such a huge purchase, that I’d be happy and content, but I’m not.  Ever since we bought the car, I’ve mentally moved on to what the next thing is that I want to buy.  Because I’ve been having back problems, I’ve moved on to thinking about buying a new bike.  I’m never content with what I have.  The power of the love of money seduces me into thinking that I’ll be happy when…

The best solution to breaking this power of money is to give money away.  When you don’t have money in your pocket, it doesn’t burn a hole there.  I’m talking here about discretionary spending.  Of course, what is discretionary (or wants) versus what is non-discretionary (or needs) is always up for debate, but I suspect that most of us could do just fine with less than what we have right now.  I know I could.

This reason for giving generously motivates me personally.  But I have come to realize that by focusing only on this one reason, I have missed out on a lot of other good reasons to give.  There are so many.  So let’s look at some more.

Obedience

Sometimes obedience gets a bad rap.  We tend to sneer a little bit when it comes to obedience.  Obedience doesn’t sound like it really comes from the heart.  It sounds a little too much like duty, but I think that obedience is a form of love.  Jesus says, “If you love me, obey my commandments” (John 14:15 NLT).  There may be higher forms of love, but obedience is definitely one form of love.

When it comes to obedience and money, Christians usually point to the idea of the tithe.  We read in several places especially in the Old Testament about giving one tenth of your income back to God (Numbers 18:26-28, Deuteronomy 14:22-29, 2 Chronicles 31, and Matthew 23:23).  For example, God says, “Do not hold anything back when you give me the tithe of your crops and your wine” (Exodus 22:29 NLT).  Of course, most of us today aren’t getting income from crops and wine.  We get income in the form of a paycheck.  Tithing means giving the first ten percent of that paycheck.  Most of us look at our income and think 10% seems like a huge amount.  In some ways it is, but that’s only if we think of our money as ours to begin with.  If we think of it as given to us by God, then it seems rather generous that God gives us $100 and lets us keep $90 of it!  Tithing is a basic form of obediently giving generously that we find especially in the Old Testament.

In the New Testament we find something a little different.  It’s not that tithing is looked down upon, but I think a way of describing the New Testament’s view of money would be to make all you can (honestly), save all you can (by living simply), and give all you can (give the rest away).  Or I like to sum this up saying, live simply and give generously. Most of us don’t need to be told to “make all you can”!

Bob Trout reminded me of a great idea from C.S. Lewis.  When talking about how much you should give away, Lewis says, “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.”  Lewis followed this principle in his own personal finances.  He sold a lot of books and made a lot of money and gave most of it away.  He didn’t live in poverty, but he did live simply and was content with just having his needs met.

Living like this is, of course, very hard.  Sarah and I have been trying to live under a certain amount and give the rest way.  We have been less successful than I would like to admit.  Perhaps some of this is because the seductive power of money keeps telling me to buy more stuff rather than give more generously.

Test Your Heart

Another good reason to give is to test your heart.  Psalm 62 says, “If riches increase, do not set your heart on them” (Psalm 62:10 NRSV).  Here we see a view of money that seems to imply that the increase of riches is a good thing as long as you don’t set your heart on it.  When preaching on this verse, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, said, “It is true, riches, and the increase of them, are the gift of God. Yet great care is to be taken, that what is intended for a blessing, does not turn into a curse.”

Jesus has some wisdom for us on this topic.  He says, “Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be” (Matthew 6:21 NLT).  I think this is true.  If you spend a lot of money on something, you will care deeply for it.  I’m finding that to be true with the new car we just bought.  I think about it a lot.  I fuss over it.  I want it to remain looking nice.  It has my attention, and if I am not careful, it will have my heart too.  Things have a funny way of owning us.  We think we own them, but in the end they become our masters.

Nothing typifies this more than the American Dream.  I was reading recently about the American Dream in Psychology Today.  Here are the first couple of paragraphs from that article:

Perhaps it is the greatest marketing slogan of all time, writ larger than life in our Declaration, applied to an entire citizenry: “the pursuit of happiness.”  Over generations of prosperity and growth, the American Dream has become an American Expectation—a version of happiness achieved by entitlement and equation: two fat incomes plus a two-car garage plus two master-bathroom sinks plus two-point-something kids equals one happy family.  To be sure, the recession has deferred some of the dream.  Still, we imagine that in time we’ll realize the formula for a satisfied adulthood once more.  We’ll land the job, catch the spouse, buy the house, have the kids.  In short, we’ll live the better life.

But a raft of report on well-being, including the World Values Survey and the General Social Survey of the National Opinion Research Center, suggest it’s not better at all.  We the people have grown continuously more depressed over the last half-century.  A recent analysis of the World Database of Happiness, cover the years 1946 to 2006, found rising happiness levels in 19 of 26 countries around the world; the United States was not one of them.  As Andrew Oswald, who studies the intersection of economics and happiness at the University of Warwick, in Britain states, “The U.S.A. has, in aggregate, apparently become more miserable over the last quarter of a century.”

Oswald and many other behavioral researchers say much of our discontent seems linked to the unrealistic expectations of the American Dream.

Psychology Today March/April 2011

Maybe we have been trying to use our money to gain happiness, and in the process we have lost happiness because our heart is in the wrong place.  Of course it is easy to say that your heart is in the right place when you have money, but when you give money away, you test your heart.  You come to find out what you really do love.  If you’re chasing the American Dream, it is likely that your heart will end up being broke (no pun intended).  If you’re chasing after God, it is likely that your heart will be fulfilled.  The best way to test your heart is to give some of that hard earned cash away.

Build Trust in God by Living Simply

Another good reason to give generously is to build trust in God by living simply.  This is similar to testing your heart.  When you live simply, you are saying, “I am trusting that God will provide.  I don’t need to hoard my money and my stuff.”  Jesus says, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal.  Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves” (Matthew 6:19-20 NLT).  Jesus goes on to say that God “will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern” (Matthew 6:33 NLT).

One of the most startling verses in the Bible is found in Malachi.  God says, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you!’” (Malachi 3:10 NLT).  Wow!  God tells us to test God.  Test God?  It’s the one place we’re told in the Bible to test God.  I wonder why we’re to test God with something like our money?  I think it has to do with trust.  When we test God in this way, we’re really testing ourselves.  Do we trust God enough to obey?  Living simply to give generously builds trust in God.

Build the Kingdom/Live Justly

A fifth reason to give generously is to build the Kingdom of God by living justly.  Jesus tells a story about a Good Samaritan.  The Good Samaritan comes across a man who has been beaten and mugged and thrown in a ditch.   He takes him to an inn.  Jesus finishes the story saying, “The next day [the Samaritan] handed the innkeeper two pieces of silver and told him to take care of the man. ‘If his bill runs higher than that,’ he said, ‘I’ll pay the difference the next time I am here’ (Luke 10:35 NLT).  The Samaritan is building the Kingdom of God right here by living justly with those who are oppressed and downtrodden.

The other day a young boy came by our house selling candy bars.  When I saw him come up our driveway I figured he was doing a fundraiser for a sport league or something, but I was wrong.  He was selling candy bars to raise money for his cousin’s funeral!  Wow!  That day I bought the most expensive candy bar I’ve ever bought.  Giving generously was part of helping God’s Kingdom to come here on earth as it in heaven.

God says through the prophet Isaiah, “I want you to share your food with the hungry and to welcome poor wanderers into your homes. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help” (Isaiah 58:7 NLT).  You should do this as an individual, but we should also be doing this a church community, and to do this as a community takes money.  Yes it takes more than money (time and talent), but it also takes money.

Part of building the Kingdom of God is supporting the church staff.  Paul says, “The Lord gave orders that those who preach the Good News should be supported by those who benefit from it” (1 Corinthians 9:14 NLT).  I know I’m on thin ice here.  I’m talking about my own salary, but it’s not just my own salary.  It’s supporting all the staff of our church so that we can function as a community together.

I did an internship at a church one summer that had a paid pastoral counselor.  This staff position was originally funded by someone who felt like his family didn’t get much support by the church when his mother died.  So what did he do?  Most of us would pack our bags and go find some other church, but that’s not what this guy did.  He decided that he didn’t want any other family to have that same experience, so he funded a new staff position!  He helped build the kingdom of God in this way.  That’s the kind of Christian I want to be like.

Joy, Gratitude, Thankfulness

One last reason to give that I want to highlight today is to nurture joy, gratitude, and thankfulness.  Paul says, “You must each make up your own mind as to how much you should give. Don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves the person who gives cheerfully” (2 Corinthians 9:7 NLT).  The temptation when we read this verse is to think that if we can’t give cheerfully or with joy then we shouldn’t give.  I think that would be a huge mistake.  When do we get to disobey because we’re not joyful about obeying?  When we give generously, we have the opportunity to explore our motivation for giving.  Are we giving out of pressure or reluctantly?  If we are giving in this way, then we have the opportunity to ask God to help change our hearts.  Don’t stop giving if you are giving reluctantly, but give your motivation to God and ask God to help give you a joyful and cheerful heart.

How?

So how do you do this?  Get out of debt.  Make a budget.  Live below your means.  Make sure you’ve got some savings for an emergency.  Debt is a dead weight around our lives.  Paul says, “Owe no one anything except to love one another” (Romans 13:8 NRSV).

One way I do all this is by automating the process.  I do this with almost all of my financial life.  I pay bills automatically.  My paycheck even gets automatically deposited in my checking account.  Why treat giving any differently?  Set up your bank to automatically send a check for you or sign up for electronic fund transfer through the church office.

Next week we’re going to give you the opportunity to make a commitment to give generously to SCC.  We’ll hand out a commitment card during worship, and you’ll be able to fill it out and turn it back in as an act of worship.  So take some time this week to prayerfully consider what kind of commitment God is calling you to make.

So give and give generously.  Give to SCC, but also give to other missions and ministries.  Give generously by taking a step toward tithing (1% or more).  Or jump right in and begin tithing.  Or move beyond tithing.  Be extravagant.  Why?  There are so many reasons…