"Opening the Floodgates"
(taken from "Seismic Shifts" by Kevin G. Harney)
1 Timothy 6:17-19
Sunday, February 11, 2007

Introduction: For those of you who have kids, you know what I’m talking about when I say that kids can believe that monsters live under their bed. I remember when I was a kid/ there was a time when I believed this to be true. There is something dark and mysterious about underneath the bed, that can scare any kid. Or if it isn’t under the bed, then it is in the closet. I’m not sure why kids believe in monsters, but so many of them do. And these monsters can steal their joy.

As I got bigger, I left these childish fears behind. I knew that there weren’t monsters under my bed. But there is another monster who wants to steal your joy, and this monster is real. Jesus warns us when He says in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

The monster that I am talking about here is the desire for riches. The apostle Paul warned us this way in 1 Timothy 6:10- “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pieced themselves with many griefs.” God wants to fill our hearts with riches that beyond compare; riches that will truly satisfy; riches that will bring us joy and contentment. So this morning I want to talk about 3 shifts we need to make so that we can have these true riches: The shift “from Mine to God’s;” “from Hamsters to Sharers;” and “from Fleeting wealth to True wealth.”

I. From Mine to God’s- (James 1:17; Matthew 6:24; Malachi 3:10)

One of the fun parts of my job on Sunday morning is the Children’s sermon.

I enjoy it because I can be creative and have fun with my teaching. But I enjoy it even more because it is my opportunity to interact with the children of our church. I love how our children feel comfortable in our church. I love how they come up to me during greeting time to say “hello” and give me a hug. And I love the challenge of trying to teach biblical truths in language they can understand. And I think you know that one way to connect with the children is through giving away candy! While parents tell their kids not to take candy from strangers, we see that they have no problem taking it from their pastor! This is a fun way to share.

a. It all belongs to God- God wants us to share all that we have. When we

have an attitude of sharing, we can live with freedom and joy. But to be able to be in this place, we have to understand that all that we have belongs to God. James tells us in 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights.” All we have, every gift, each moment, every ability, is given to us by God. So, if we understand this thinking, we understand that nothing we have belongs to us. It is God’s, and He gives it to us to manage.

If we can let this truth sink in, then we can make the shift from “mine to God’s.” Now this is counter-cultural, because we are taught that we own things. But ownership can really mess us up. When we think we own something, then we think it is ours to control and do with as we please. But if we are managing something, then we understand that we have to use it as the owner desires. It changes our thinking and our posture.

Instead of a posture of having our hands clenched (which is a posture of holding onto something tightly, we have a posture of living with open hands. And even more, our open hands need to be turned upward to heaven, giving all things back to God. This posture helps us to battle against the temptation to fall in love with things. As Jesus warns us in Matthew 6:24- “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

b. What is a tithe?- This also leads us to tithing. Tithing is giving away 10

percent of our money. For most people, giving away 10 percent of their income to God seems unthinkable. They might love the Lord, and be thankful for what they have, but feel that 10 percent is too much to give away. Especially because we live in a world with such high financial demands. Especially living in a world where there are so many nice things to buy. Especially living in a world that is so unstable. You might think that God is being a bit unreasonable demanding this from you.

I am thankful that I was able to work up to this. When I first moved out, I was living on $600 a month. Therefore I only had to give $60 a month. Even though it was a large part of my total sum, the figure of $60 didn’t seem so high. Then as I worked my way up into higher salaries, I was able to work on continuing to give that 10 percent. As we are told in Malachi, “The tithe is God’s.” This isn’t a question or an option, it is a statement: “The tithe is God’s.”

The other side of this is that we don’t trust God that things will be all right after we give the 10 percent. We wonder how we will live. Will we have enough to pay our bills and do the things we want? Will God really help me to live on what I have left after I give the 10 percent?

And the answer is “YES.” God is faithful and will answer the call. I have seen this in my own life, and I have seen this in the lives of so many others. When we make the seismic shift to giving in this way, it really opens the door to a new level of joy and blessing. We feel the joy of giving to our church, and seeing our giving make a difference in the Kingdom of God. And we feel the joy of not being tied down by our money and possessions that keep up from enjoying what we have been given.

Now for some of you this kind of jump is major. The statistics show that the average in giving is somewhere between 1 to 2 percent. So to move from 2 percent to 10 percent is a great jump. One way to make this shift is to increase your percentage each month. This month you give 2 percent; next month 3 percent; and so on until you move to 10 percent. And to do this you might have to give up some wants so that you can help meet God’s needs. As the end of Malachi 3:10 says- “…put me to the test, says the Lord…see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.”

II. From Hamsters to Sharers- (2 Corinthians 9:7; Mark 12:41-44)

a. The hamster spirit- Now the next shift might sound funny: from

Hamsters to Sharers. But the truth is, we live in a hamster-like world. Meaning, there is something innate in the human spirit that makes us want to hoard far more than we need. If left unchecked, most of us will spend a good deal of our lives accumulating as much as we can. Hamsters have an interesting characteristic; they have an elastic facial skin that can stretch over an inch away from their bodies without discomfort. Because of this, they like to store great amounts of food in their cheeks. We can do this in our homes; store great amounts of things. If you doubt me, just look around your house and see all that stuff that you have accumulated over the years.

If we want to move past this money monster that is in our lives, we have to learn to identify the hamster spirit that rules our culture, and fight against it. We have to admit that we are prone to hoarding more than we really need. And to do this we need to learn to be more generous.

Generosity is an important shift that needs to be made. When we become generous, we begin to have a shift of view. What I mean by this is that we begin to look for ways to share what we have, instead of hoarding.

One of the greatest examples of generosity in human history is God’s sending His only Son as a gift to pay the price for our sins and to set us free. Jesus, God in the flesh, modeled generosity on a level far greater than we could ever imagine or understand. He left the glory of heaven, the glory of being God, and took upon Him human flesh. Why? For the purpose of giving to us His love, presence, glory, and sacrifice.

b. A cheerful giver- So we are called not only to be givers; not only to be

generous givers; but to be CHEERFUL generous givers. Now an oxymoron is a phrase where 2 or more of the words don’t seem to fit together. Being asked to be a cheerful giver to some might sound like an oxymoron. How can we be cheerful when we give away the things that we have? How are generosity and cheer linked? But the truth is, they are amazingly linked. We are told in 2 Cor. 9:7- “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly, or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” The Bible itself tells us that these 2 words are linked to each other.

EX. There is a story of a little boy who sat on the floor of the church nursery with a red rubber ball in each arm and 3 Nerf balls clenched on the floor between his knees. He was trying to protect all five from the other children in the nursery; trying to make sure that no one took them from him. The problem was that he could not hold all five at once, and the ball nearest to his feet was particularly vulnerable of being stolen. So whenever any of the kids came close to get a ball, he would snarl at them. This went on for about 5 minutes. And the whole time the other children were circling him trying to decide how they could get the balls away from him. BUT, the truth of this scenario is that the boy had all the balls he wanted, yet he could not enjoy them; he was having no fun at all! His selfishness created an environment that kept everyone from having any fun.

This is the perfect example of the hamster spirit; the hoarding we like to do. It may not be as obvious as this little boy, but we hoard, and in our hoarding keep ourselves from having fun. Our tendency to selfishness does not bring us joy or cheer.

Unless you are a juggler, or playing pool, you don’t need more than one ball. And half a ball is even better. Why half a ball? Because half a ball means that we are sharing with someone else. And when we are sharing, we will have more fun.

Sometimes we can be tricked into thinking that only those who have a lot can share and be generous. But the truth is, to be generous you don’t have to have a large bank account, you just have to have a large heart. As we are reminded by Jesus in Mark 12:41-44, “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

III. From Fleeting wealth to True wealth- (Matthew 22:37-39; 1 Corinthians 13:13; Matthew 25:40)

a. An eternal perspective- There is a story about a man named

Harold. Harold was at the end of his life. He had had a full, rich life. But now he was at the end of this life, in a Hospice bed in his home. Everyone new it was just a matter of days; maybe even a matter of hours. His pastor came to visit him and pray for him. Then Harold asked the pastor to help him out of his bed to go to the front window. It was only a few feet away, but for Harold it took quite a struggle to get there. As Harold looked out the window he looked over at his silver Lexus SUV parked in his driveway. Then with a sigh of relief he whispered: “Thank you, I just had to see it one more time.”

I tell this story, but none of us would believe it to be true. No one in their dying hours wants to look at their car one last time. Dying people don’t ask: “How much do I have in my bank account?” They don’t say: “I wish I would have gotten one more raise.” NO. In the last moments of life, people are concerned with where they stand with God, and being with those closest to them.

God knows what matters most in this life and in eternity is just that: God and people. That is why when Jesus told us the 2 great commandments, he said in Matthew 22:37-39, “Love the Lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” Everything will pass away except love. In

1 Corinthians 13:13 the apostle Paul tells us just this: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

The third shift we must make to defeat the money monster is adopting an eternal perspective of riches. In the movie Dead Poets Society, there is a scene in which a new teacher at a private prep school helps a group of students see the world from a new vantage point. He invites them to walk to the front of the class, step us on his chair, and fro there, stand on top of his desk. (Now you need to understand that the school has strict rules against anti-establishment behavior). So at first, none of the students come forward. But then one boy does it, and then another, until they all are lined up to get this new perspective.

What if I were to invite you to stand on the pew for a different perspective? Would you do it? Even if you don’t, just the thought of it might help you to have a different perspective. (Have congregation stand for a moment)

GOD INVITES US TO CLIMB UP ON HIS HEAVENLY THRONE

AND LOOK OVER THE CLUTTER AND LIES THE WORLD HAS PILED IN FRONT OF US. FROM THIS NEW VANTAGE POINT

WE CAN SEE THINGS IN A WAY THAT TELLS US WHAT HAS ETERNAL VALUE, AND WHAT IS WORTH INVESTING OUR

TIME, ENERGY, AND MONEY IN.

b. Fleeting wealth- Going back to the verse from the introduction,

Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Being wealthy is not what makes one rich. Listen to these quotes from famous rich men:

Henry Ford- “I was happier when I was doing a mechanic’s job.”

John D. Rockefeller- “I have made many millions, but they have brought me no happiness.”

Andrew Carnegie- “Millionaires seldom smile.”

The conclusion is that more wealth does not equal greater satisfaction.

Gregg Easterbrook wrote a book called “Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse.” In this book he explores the sad reality that even though our pursuit of material things often leads to getting the possessions we always dreamed we wanted, once we have them, we are less satisfied and happy.

So let me tell you of 5 investment secrets that will help you to be more satisfied, and more happy, and having true riches. Secret #1- A heart in love with God. Loving God is the cornerstone of all investments, because in God our perspective of what we need changes, and we are led to invest in the things that make an eternal difference. Secret #2- Helping others grow closer to God. When we help others to grow closer to God, we know that we are helping people to be in a position to make decisions that will bring joy and fulfillment to their lives. Secret #3- Caring for the poor and forgotten. God has a special place in His heart for the poor, the outcasts, and the forgotten. God wants us to as well. That is why Jesus told us in Matthew 25:40- “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” Secret #4- Being a consistent giver. Make the commitment to give regularly; now, and for the rest of your life. This giving to God and God’s Kingdom will bring great dividends. Secret #5- Share the good news of Jesus. Nothing is more valuable than the human soul. To share Jesus with someone else can lead to their eternal salvation. How great is that?

Conclusion- What I am talking about today is the shift from seeking money and possessions, to seeking that which has eternal value. The money we have really doesn’t make a difference if all we do is spend it on ourselves. In the end, when we are face to face with Jesus, and He asks us what we did with what He gave us, what will you say? Will you say you used it for yourself and your family, or will you say that you used it to make a REAL difference in this world and the world to come? I know for me, even though I can’t always see the blessings I receive when I give to God, I know that what I have is not mine, it’s God’s; I know that I need to share, not hoard; and I know that true wealth is found in being generous with what God has given me. Let us make this commitment to slay the money dragon! Amen.