Faith Has Its Seasons VI, The Season Of Financial Stress II

We're talking about the second message in this series, the season of financial stress. And what I want to say going into this is that there's a lot of relationship between financial stress and a lot of other things in your life. And so expect that there's more here that may have to do with what's going on in the rest of your life than just the financial part. I need your outline and we're going to be filling this out together as we go. You know, last weekend there was about 70 North Way golfers who showed up out at Crandell Golf Club for the second annual Student Ministries Golf Outing. It was a beautiful autumn day, much like today. And I think everyone had a great time of fellowship, although some clearly had a better time golfing than others. I couldn't help but notice there seemed to be a direct correlation between level of ability and level of enjoyment when it came to golf. Have you noticed that? Yeah. It just seems that people who knew what they were doing had a lot more fun than ones who were trying to make it up as they went along. I noticed, couldn't help but notice, there was multiple levels of ability out there. And I identified five of them. We started with our lowest level of ability. These were the hackers, right? Choppers, duffers, what else? I mean, those of you who are, what do you call yourself? Horrible, whatever. But every swing is an adventure. Sometimes the ball goes way out that way, and next time it's off in the other fairway. And then every once in a while you hit a long one. You say, man, I'm going to conquer this game. Usually those folks would end up saying somewhere along the line, why do I kill myself like this? Then came the next level, which was the high handicappers. These are people who, on any given hole, can have two or three good shots or two or three bad ones. I mean, never can tell. End of the day, there's just no consistency. They're usually 20, 30 strokes over par. But it's fun to be out. Then there's the decent level. These are pretty good golfers. These are fairly consistently able to get the ball out there. Some pars along the way. An occasional birdie, which is a big deal. But quite a few bogeys, too. 12, 15 over par. A lot of folks out there. I noticed those tended to be the real intense people. I think they felt they could just get a little bit stronger grip on the club, something would go farther, whatever. They were having a good time of it. Then we had the low handicappers. These were the good golfers. These were the 3 to 5 over par kind of. These were the guys, when they stood up in the tee box, especially some of these guys, they'd whack the ball around. Everyone would go, wow. They know what they're doing kind of golfers. There were several of them out there as well. They were good. But we also had one pro golfer out there. We have one gal in our church who's a professional golfer. She was on one of the par 3 holes. I watched her. Several foursomes went by as she would hit the ball. Time, consistent, smooth. Just everything about it was in sync. She, confident. She was enjoying herself. She just had a great time. That's kind of what her life's about, is playing golf. She just loves to do it. I'm sure some of you are wondering, where am I in this continuum? Maybe you're not, but I'm going to tell you. You all know that I didn't play this time because of the injury to my back in August. But the last time I went golfing, went something like this. My first ball, I shot it at a right angle off the tee. In fact, the guys with me said, how can a ball go in that direction? My second ball went, way off left out of bounds. Third ball, I had a hard swing and just topped it and it dribbled off the tee. Friends, it took me four shots just to get through the windmill. You'll get it, Scott. It'll come to you. Just like levels of golf, there are, when it comes to giving, levels of motivation. I want to look at this for just a few minutes today. I want you to look at your life as I go through these because I think it may help to reveal to you something of what's going on in your spirit. Friends, I can't express strong enough how much this is connected to the rest of your life. So bear with this. Even if this isn't what you came for today, it may be what God wants to give you. Let's talk, first of all, about the text for this morning which says this. Look at it. 2 Corinthians 9.7. Would you read it with me, please? Let's read it out loud. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. He what? Find somewhere else in the Bible where it said God loves you for something you do. But he says that about cheerful giving. He loves it. Let's look at it. First motivation, if you'll help me now, Donna, please, is what I want to call gentle guilt. This is the motivation that says, we know I really ought to give something when the basket goes by. I really ought to do something. I get something back, so really I ought to. These tend to be people who understand the basics of economics. They get something out of their club, their golf group, so they give something to keep it going. They think, if I don't give something, maybe the thing isn't going to survive and I won't have what I need. So it's sort of like, yeah, I ought to do it. So it's sort of this motivation that's, well, yeah, I get something, I might as well give something. You've got a pay-to-play kind of mentality. When we went to Bradley House years ago, our old building, we were renting initially, and one of the things that we had to do to be there, if you recall, those of you, how many of you old folks remember? Former members. Put your hand right up. Former members remember that we didn't just have donuts, folks, we had Danish. I mean, big Danish, yes. But it was part of the contract. I had a gentleman come up to me one Sunday, maybe he'd been in there six or eight months, something like that. He came up to me and he said, Jay, how much does it cost us per head to have these Danish and coffee? I said, I can tell you exactly, because we signed a contract, it costs $2.50 per head. That's a lot of money, but that's what it costs, because we've got to get the room thrown in. And the guy said, that's good, because I'm given $3 a week and I just wanted to make sure I was covering it. Okay, thank you. Well, you see, that's the way some people think. Just kind of cover my part of it. The Bible knows nothing, in case you're wondering, about motivation by guilt. It doesn't know anything about it. And it doesn't bless God when you give because you feel like you ought to, or someone's squeezing you to do it, or if you do, it'll keep something going that you like. That's not it. Let's go on to the second motivation, a better motivation. The first one the Bible really does talk about is spiritual gratitude. Psalm 116, verse 12. How can I repay the Lord for all of His goodness? One translation says, for His wonderful benefits to me. You see, the starting point of this kind of giving is the understanding of how outrageously good God has been to you by giving you His Son and the sacrifice He made for your life by dying on the cross. One of the favorite choruses in the 70s and 80s, if you were a believer and walking in faith then, was the chorus that started like this. How can I say thanks for the things you have done for me? Things so undeserved that you did to prove your love for me. The voices of million angels could not express my gratitude. All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe it all to Thee. And then the chorus was, to God be the glory for the things He has done. Spiritual gratitude only comes about when your eyes have been opened to seeing the condition from which God had rescued you. And you know something, church? One of the reasons why some of us struggle so with giving is as Oswald Chambers says, we've not yet received anything. Before you'll ever want to give, you've got to first receive something from God. You've got to receive His grace gift of forgiveness of your sin and in establishing a relationship with the living God. Once you've come to grips with how dead you are, and you know what, folks? Dead people don't do anything to help themselves. How many dead people have you seen lifting themselves up by the bootstraps? Doesn't happen. The Bible says we were dead in our sins, Ephesians chapter 2. Dead in our sins. That means we could not help ourselves spiritually. And it was over. And Jesus Christ looked down and saw our condition and He didn't say, you know what? Let's just wipe this world out and start a new one, which He could have done. He said, no, I love my creation. And He came down, took on the form of man, Philippians 2 says, took on our nature and then lived a perfect sinless life and then did that sin substitute thing where He gave His life, a perfect life for our sin. And when that begins to just break in on your understanding, loved ones, it evokes gratitude. Karl Barth is a very famous German theologian and his book on theology or his systematic theology is 26 volumes. It's this huge thing. I can't even begin to get into it. But listen to this quote. I put it on your sheet. It so impressed me. It's about the simplest thing I ever heard him say. Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Grace evokes gratitude like the voice and echo. Gratitude follows grace as thunder follows lightning. Boy, do I like that. It's as if when you have the lightning strike of God's grace and mercy and forgiveness in your life, what automatically follows should be what? The thunder of your gratitude. Boom! You know, Pastor Day, I have to say, can I just be real honest for about a minute here? Pastor Day this morning, he was just trying so hard to get you to just open up and enter in. Why is it when we come together at church, we should be ready to go? First of all, you should be here. But once we're here, we should be ready to enter in and say, oh God, I'm just ready to pour out with thanksgiving to you. And can I just say, it may again be one of the reasons if it's not flowing out is because you haven't received an awareness of what it is that God has done for you. The Bible says that Jesus Christ didn't fight it. He didn't struggle to give his life. The Bible says that he willingly gave it up. And I don't know how you picture that, but you know, I don't picture Jesus struggling with the soldiers. Do you see him doing that? Do you? What does it say? The Bible says Jesus said, no one takes my life from me. I give it up. I see Jesus just saying, okay, it's time. And he opened up his hands and he drove those nails into his hands. And you know something? That's a picture of what our life should be like. And it comes to money. Some of us, you know, we get a hold of some money and we just say, alright God. Instead of just saying, you know, Lord, this expression of who I am, I open my heart and I open my hands. I worked for this. I labored for it. But you're the one that's given me my life. And we open and freely give to you. That's gratitude. Next level of motivation is spiritual obedience. This is where things begin to get very interesting. Many people give out a gratitude now and then when they kind of feel prompted. But the Bible talks about a higher level of giving, a level of spiritual obedience. In this level, you've come to understand. Now listen carefully. Listen. Jesus as Lord. Say it with me. Jesus as Lord. I didn't hear you. Jesus as Lord of your life. You know the word Lord in Greek, the word Kyrios, not curious, but Kyrios means boss, owner, or master. That's what the word Lord means. Lord sounds, I like that word. But I don't like boss, owner, or master. But that's what it means in the Greek dictionary. And when you come to that time of spiritual obedience, you give because Jesus Christ is your boss. There's an interesting story in John chapter 2. You might want to turn there sometime. I noted it in your notes. Where the mother of Jesus, Mary, said something that changed my life one time when I read it. Jesus had gone to Cain of Galilee and he had been asked to do this thing of helping fix the wine problem. And how many of you know that was a weird miracle to start with? That was Jesus' first miracle, was turning water into wine. And what happened was they'd run out of the wine at this big party and the friends of Jesus were about to be embarrassed and his mother steps in and says to these servants over here, she says, look, I'm quoting right out of the Bible, whatever he says, in other words, whatever Jesus says, do it. Whatever he says, do it. The servants, Jesus told them to go fill up the water jars with water and then go take it out to the wine steward and the servants said, come on. They're going to fire us. I mean, it's just water. He took it out. They took out a ladle of it and it was the finest wine of the whole banquet. Well, when I read that with understanding the first time, it just exploded in my mind. I realized that what the Lord was saying to me was whatever he says, Jay, do it. And I've lived my life for the last 20 some years since that word of revelation trying to be that kind of Christian. Now, whatever he says, I'm going to do it kind of Christian. And it isn't always easy and I don't always do it. I'm not always perfectly obedient. I don't want to mislead you at all. But can I say this? When it comes to giving, folks, it's pretty clear what the Lord says to do. So when I began to study the word of God, turn your outline over, one of the things I realized that the word said was this. Honor the Lord by giving him whatever's left at the end of the month. Honor the Lord by giving him what's left at the end of the year. No. Honor the Lord by giving him the first part of all your income. I've had several people call me or talk to me or whatever during the week who said, you know, that's really hard for me. Because that means I have to live on whatever's left instead of on giving what's left. And that's right. That's the whole intent. But you see, what you're doing is you're honoring God and you're doing whatever he says. And then look at the next verse. And this became very powerfully clear to me. If I'm going to be a whatever-he-says-do-it kind of Christian, look at this. Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, well, how do we rob you? Friends, that is a pretty serious accusation when God says you're robbing from me. In tithes and offerings, you're under a curse because you're robbing me. By curse, he meant that there were things that were happening in your life that you couldn't get out from underneath. Does that sound familiar to anybody? Here's where, listen carefully, here's where the connection comes. Listen, please listen. Some of you are living under a curse in other parts of your life because you haven't obeyed in this part. And God says, you've got to get it out from underneath that. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you'll not have room enough for it. You see, here's the wonderful thing, folks. Once you step out and obey the Lord, He says, He says, I'm going to more than make up for what it is that you gave. You're going to have more than you know what to do with in my abundance. And I have to tell you, the Lord, it just amazes me. Are there times that I don't have enough money for the things I want? Absolutely. Are there times I make choices to do without things? Absolutely. But God always comes through with what I need by the time that I need it. That's all I can tell you. He's faithful that way. And sometimes, and I look over my life, and I have so much more than I ever thought I would have. I mean, you know, what God leaves behind is more than I ever thought I would have. That's what this promise is. And I have to say just as clearly as I can, I don't ever have to stand before God and say, you know, Lord, I robbed you because. And people tell me there are excuses for not tithing. Well, you know, I've got to pay off my debts first. Ever think about maybe the possibility that you're in debt because you haven't paid your first obligation? There's a correlation there. People say, well, you know, I wanted to tithe, or I started to tithe, but, you know, I just, well. And then they go on and on. And they say, well, I can't make it if I take 10% out of my budget. Well, I have to say to you, that's taking the assumption that you'll have less when you give. And God says, you'll never have less when you give to me. I always give back more than I take. That's the way the Lord works. There are hundreds of you here today that have done this. And you would say, if I gave you an opportunity, I have learned to tithe, and I have learned the blessing of it. But there are also hundreds of us in this church that have not yet done it. We have not moved up to level three. And I want to say clearly today, would you pray about that? Would you pray about becoming a tither? And coming under the blessing of God and seeing if he doesn't open the windows of heaven? I've had about a dozen people tell me about testimonies in this last couple of weeks in their life when they stepped out and trusted him, how God met them in amazing ways. I want to encourage you to do it. Be an obedient giver. Now, there'll be other times the Lord will say, do this, or give here. Someone will come up and say, you know, I'm going on a mission trip. And something will prompt your heart, and the Lord will say, give. But does that mean you give to everything that comes down? No. I get a stack of stuff like this every week, don't you? From people, I mean, all over the place. And if I gave all those things, I mean, I'd have nothing. So sometimes, in good conscience, I say, this is not for me, and I just put it in the file, the round one. Goodbye. And I don't feel guilty about that. But sometimes the Lord says, do this, and I do it. And there's joy in giving that way. Number four. Big leap from number two to number three. But number four is when it gets really exciting. That's the level of spiritual vision. Now, just as in golf, there are not too many who get to that level of being the club champion, you know, the really good three, four over par kind of golfer. Not too many that get to this spiritual vision level of giving either. This is beyond gratitude and obedience. These are people who watch TV and read all kinds of resources and magazines and internet stuff and so on. And they realize that the world that we live in is in deep trouble. And though we in America have it really pretty stable and secure in a lot of ways, they realize that the foundations are crumbling. Discerning people see it pretty clearly. Only the people who are pretending not to see it fool themselves about it. You know, this election, I'm not going to talk about it today. I am going to talk about it before the election. But one of the things that I just can't get over is nobody really is even trying to say that they have the solutions to the problems we face in this country. What they're trying to tell you is, if you elect me, I'm going to roll out some stuff that will make a difference in this narrow band of what our life is like or this narrow band. But nobody really has any solutions to what is happening in terms of the erosion of the fabric of this culture. I get into a pretty hairy discussion with a guy this week about that. He wasn't sure it was all that bad. And I quoted some statistics for him. And again, if you open up your eyes and read carefully, there's so much underneath that's happening. Friends, it's scary. Bill Bennett said this not too long ago. It was quoted in the Wall Street Journal. He said, I submit to you that the crisis of our time is spiritual. What afflicts us as a nation is a corruption of the heart and a turning away of the soul. Nothing, nothing has been more consequential in the unraveling of our society than large segments of the American society privately turning away from God. And to turn things around, there must come a widespread personal spiritual renewal. Did you know that church attendance in America has dropped from 46% to 37% in the last four years? That's according to George Barnes' latest poll. People are getting less and less interested in God, more and more interested in themselves. And what a person with spiritual vision realizes is that Jesus Christ isn't just the answer for your spiritual hunger. He's also the answer for every other thing. For the torment in marriages that are out there. For the brokenness in families whose kids are in rebellion. For the discord that exists in the marketplace between employees. He is the answer. We don't always come to him as we should, but he's the one that has the solution to the problems of the world. Peter Drucker, a well-known management consultant, an elderly German gentleman, was recently interviewed and was asked, where do you see things changing the course of American culture? And he said, well, it's not happening in government and it's not happening in business and it's not happening in education. I also read this week where 49% of Americans today are functionally illiterate. 49%. It's the highest of almost any industrialized nation. Our children aren't learning to read is what that means. And that's not to condemn them, if that happens to be a problem that you have, it's just to say what's happening in our system isn't working. And Peter Drucker turned and the interviewer said, well, what should we do about this situation? And Drucker turned and he said, well, what we should do is we should invest our lives and our resources into those things which are changing people, which are transforming people's lives. And the interviewer said, well, what are those things? And Drucker said, I just see three things. He said, I see the local church, I see 12 step programs, and I see some not-for-profit organizations that are giving themselves to the process of changing people. And those should be the places where we invest. If we have spiritual vision, let's not throw our money down the drain. Friends, it's going to happen. Many of us will leave this earth with nothing to show, but just ladderling off some resources to our kids and hoping that they'll do a better job with them. I was startled when I discovered this just a few weeks ago. We have an overhead on this. We are about to experience the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world. The builder generation, those in their mid-50s and above, over the next 20 years as they pass away, they're going to be leaving what they've built to the generation that follows. And I want to give you an idea of how big this number is. Over the next 20 years, 8 to 12 trillion dollars is going to pass through the conduits of our generational legacies. 8 to 12 trillion dollars. How many of you have considered what you're going to do with what you're leaving behind? I mean, considered it Christianly. And I want to just challenge those of you who may be up in that generation. Did you know that there are ways that you can give part of your resource into ministry activities and have more left for your family if you plan accordingly? But so many of us won't even take the time to do that. We'll just sort of take the easy, least resistance route and miss an opportunity. I met with a guy about three weeks ago who told me there's an opportunity in this next 20 years for 500 million dollars to be released into the ministry economy of Pittsburgh. That's what he estimates just based on his professional contact. And I say 20 years is a long time. You know what? I've been in ministry more than 20 years and there hasn't been close to that given into the ministry economy here in Pittsburgh. We can do it if we want to move ahead with spiritual vision. People say, well, what kind of vision are you talking about? Well, what if? I mean, I just like to dream, what if resources got released even through this body and we were able to pay off this building and start pouring that half million dollars a year that we're paying out in interest in our principle into ministry opportunities all around us? What if we had a counseling center, a not-for-profit counseling center right here on our campus that was staffed by qualified counselors? Can you think of the number of people that could come in and find help? I mean, what if we had the resources to establish a senior care facility as these generations get older? They're looking for things to do and for people to love them. I mean, the opportunities, possibilities, a school for ministry and mission. I say, let's have a congregation of spiritual dreamers who can make a difference with what they want to give and strategically plan to do so. What if? I'm thankful for those of you. I'm thankful for those of you who've made a difference, who've brought us to this point. I really am. Some of you, I mean, you just you're amazing. But I want to invite all of us to come on and let's finish the job that's before us. Let's share that vision until it's completed. And what is the final level? What's the final level of giving? Before we do that, let's go ahead and put it up. The final level is love. The final level is love. We have an overhead that maybe will help this kind of be galvanized in your mind a little bit. Take a look at it. It's a pyramid, really. All the way from gentle guilt, which just says, I ought to. The gratitude that says, because of what he's done for me. To obedience, it's because whatever he says, I'm going to do it. To vision, because you see the stakes that are out there. Finally, the highest motivation is love. And time's gone, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time developing this except to say that if you look carefully at the gospel, you'll see multiple illustrations of why people gave that just made no sense at all. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever given something that didn't make any sense at all? Didn't make any sense? There was a woman in Luke chapter 7 who'd come out of a pretty seedy background. She was a prostitute The whole gathering in this house knew about it. Jesus invited her to a party. She shows up and the Bible says that she took this little vial of expensive perfume. How expensive was it? Well, it was a year's wages worth. I've never seen that at Kaufman's, but I can imagine, you know. That's pretty expensive. The Bible says that she took this perfume and broke it open and poured it over Jesus' feet. The fragrance of it filled the whole place. She just kind of worshipped him and cleaned his feet with that perfume. There's a beautiful picture there. Jesus, of course, people around her said, what's the deal here? She's wasting this. It could have been given to the poor. Jesus said, no, wait a minute. Wait a minute. There's a reason why she gave this unreasonable gift. People, what is it? He said, because she was forgiven much. And he or she who is forgiven much, loves much. Loves irrationally at times. Loves beyond measurement. You see, gratitude is kind of measured, but love just gives. How many of you have been in love and you just wanted to give the person you love something unreasonable? Hello? Well, if you've never done that, you've never been in love. Is that right? Am I right? Come on, gals. Am I right? I mean, if they really love you every once in a while, they show it some unreasonably outrageous way, right? And vice versa. Amen. There's one guy who said occasionally that love gives just because it realizes that the object of that love is worth everything that you have. It's the highest motivation. A little old widow lady came up. It was time to give offerings, and guess who was standing at the offering basket? Huh? No, no, not a Pharisee. Jesus. Watching people put their offerings in. I'd like that to be the case today. I don't think so. You know, Jesus, come back next week. I'll do, you know, I'll be a lot better next week. He's standing there watching people put it, and this little widow lady puts in what was it? Two cents? People said to me, you know what? That's my vision. I'd like to be the two-cent giver. No. Bible says she gave all she had. And Jesus said, you know what? She's given more than the wealthy guys who just kind of peeled off a few big bucks. Didn't touch them at all. Why would that lady give all she had? That's not rational, friends. That doesn't make sense. Why would she do it? Because she loved. And I'm sure she sensed in her spirit that Jesus Christ was worthy of what all she had, and that he would take care of. God would meet her needs and give her strength. Amen. And so as I conclude this morning, I just want to ask you one more time. If we could put that pyramid back up, Donna. Where are you on the pyramid? And I'm going to ask you just in a real personal kind of way to respond this morning, very privately, but I feel this is what the Lord would have us to do. Where are you on this little continuum? If you notice on the right-hand column of your outline, there's a blank that wasn't filled in if you were taking notes. And what I'd like you to do right now, just privately, and I can ask you to share this with anybody, just mark which of those motivations you're living in right now. Are you a person that just kind of now and then just sort of gives because you ought to? Well, just mark that. That's where I am. Are you one who gives now and then because you feel just that you're grateful to God? Yes. Are you one who's giving according to obedient, whatever he says I'm going to do kind of giving? I'm tithing. I'm giving offerings as the Lord leads. Are you one that's stepped up to the level? I'm making a difference. I'm giving beyond the tithe. I'm seeing out there what can be done. I'm giving generously. Just mark that one. And are you giving from time to time outrageously because you love? You know, this church is a wonderful place. There are great things happening here all the time. I can say that without any, I mean, I don't mean that pridefully. I mean that with just great thanksgiving to God. But you know what? This church is also not all that God wants it to be yet. And there are resources in here that have yet to be tapped of your own blessing that God wants to unleash here in Pittsburgh, the North Hills, but even beyond that to the world. The question is, will we do what God says? Will we do it his way? I'd like you to stand with me and just invite the Holy Spirit right now to lead us as we conclude together. Lord, would you let it be our hearts cry today that whatever we do would bring honor and glory and praise to your name in our giving. That we would honor you, Lord, in a way beyond what we've ever done before. And that something in us would be released. We pray, Lord, this day that you'd have your way, that you'd flow life through us to the world around us. I'd like you to sing this chorus with us, church. It's a declaration of what we're all about, what we stand for. Sing it with us. Pastor Dave, let's sing. Our desire Our desire is to see the nation's worship Our cry Our prayer is to see the race to the ends of the earth Everyone mighty Lord Every tribe and tongue rejoices Our God.