The Truth As Far As I Can Tell… Luke 11:42 - “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees!
For you are careful totitheeven
the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love
of God. You shouldtithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.
Jesus talked about money a lot.He talked about money more than He did Heaven and Hell combined.11 out of 39 of Jesus’ parables talk about
money.1 out of every 7 verses in the
Gospel of Luke refer to money.Apparently, Jesus knew money was a very important aspect of our
spiritual lives.The way we manage our money
is a symptom of our spiritual health.
In Luke 11:42, Jesus scolds
the Pharisees for ignoring justice and the love of God, but he affirms their
practice of tithing.Jesus recognized the
Biblical standard of giving.A person
should give a tithe, which is 10% of their income (see Gen. 28:22; Lev. 27:30,
32).
Today, 9 out of 10 people that
go to church do not tithe.Some people say they tithe (meaning they give
money to the church), but they don’t really give 10% of their income.The median household income in America is a little
over $50,000 a year.So in order to tithe,
the average person would need to give about $5,000 a year to the church (or
about $100 per week).Most people do
not; therefore, they do not tithe.They
give an offering, but not a tithe.
Some argue that they don’t
have to give money because they give their time instead.That’s twisting what the Bible says, but I’ll
play along to make a point.If you want
to give 10% of your time, you would need to volunteer at the church for 16
hours and 48 minutes each week.If you’d
like to do that, I can put you to work!
There
are other arguments people make to excuse not giving as much as the Bible
instructs, but all this misses a bigger point.Jesus doesn’t want what you have. Jesus
wants you!Jesus doesn’t want just 10%
of your income or your time.Jesus wants
your whole heart.And if you surrender
your heart to Him, you will surrender everything else.You will stop asking questions like, “How
much time, money, obedience, do I have to give?”You will have an attitude that honors justice
and the love of God.You will ask, “How
much can I give?How much can I honestly justify
keeping for myself?”For where your
heart is, there your treasure will be also. (Mt. 6:21)
People
who join as members of Pleasant Grove UMC make a promise to support the church
with their prayers, their presence, their gifts, their service, and their
witnesses.It is not one or the
other.It’s all of the above.Think how much good the church could do if every
Christian started tithing?Think of the
wonderful children and youth programs we would have.Think of the amazing music and worship services we could provide.Think of how many needy people we could serve
and how many lives we could change.Think of the difference we could make if we all simply stepped up and
gave a full tithe.
Here’s the thing
though.It wouldn’t just help the church.It would help you.Our selfish attitudes (about sin, money, gratitude,
giving, etc.) only change through practice.Giving a tithe is like spiritual push ups. It builds your faith muscles.Why don’t you start building yours today?I’m no expert and certainly don’t
claim to know everything, but I believe in God’s Word and I trust in His
Grace.And that’s the Truth as far as I can tell…
Everybody
needs a purpose.With no purpose, you
have no direction and no motivation.A
person's health often declines drastically in the months just after they
retire.Researchers believe this is
largely due to the retiree losing their since of purpose.A study by the Harvard School of Public
Health showed that recent retirees were 40% more likely to have a heart attack
or stroke than those who were still working.[i]
Perhaps this is because while people
are working, they have a stronger identity and more driving them.When people retire, they often feel adrift,
become depressed or inactive.It is not
that retirement is unhealthy, it’s just that retirees need to find a new
purpose to give them direction and motivation.
We all need
a purpose.The Good News is God gives us
a noble purpose that transcends our jobs, our age, our gender, and everything
else about us.Our purpose, our mission,
is called the Great Commission.Today we
begin a new sermon series on the Great Commission. It was
given directly by Jesus after he rose from the grave, just before he ascended
to Heaven to sit on his throne at the right hand of God the Father
Almighty.Let’s look at the Great
Commission as it was passed on to us in the Gospel of Matthew 28:18-20.
Matthew 28:18-20
18 Jesus came and told his disciples,“I have been given all authority in
heaven and on earth.19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the
nations,baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.20 Teach these new disciples to obey all
the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even
to the end of the age.”
Context
The Great
Commission is not an option; it is a command given to Jesus' disciples.In the beginning, it was to the 12 original
disciples (minus Judas who betrayed Jesus and committed suicide).But the command was not just to the twelve,
it is to all who call themselves “disciples”—anyone who has decided to follow
Jesus.If you have decided to follow
Jesus, you are a disciple and this Great Commission is for you.
Jesus said,
“I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.Therefore…”In other words, we had better pay attention and heed his command because
it has the authority of the Son of God, the Lord of all Heaven and Earth,
behind it.The Great Commission is a
command that transcends all other missions we have in life.It is the Christian’s ultimate objective.When God gives an order, it transcends all
commands given by those of lesser authority.John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said it this way: “You have one
business on earth—to save souls.”
That
doesn’t mean we drop all our other responsibilities in order to carry out this
one Great Commission.The Great
Commission can be carried out—actually it should be carried out—as we go about
all our other duties.The Great
Commission ought to permeate everything we do.Let’s look a little closer at what the Great Commission says by breaking
it into parts.We will look at the first
part today.It is simple.Just one word.“Go!”
Lost in Translation
Some things are easily lost in
translation.The Chevy Nova was one of
the top selling cars for General Motors in the 1960s and 70s.I used to catch a ride to high school with my
best friend in his brother’s 1974 Chevy Nova SS.It was a fast, fun car to ride in.But legend has it, the Nova did not sell well
in Spanish speaking countries because “No Va” in Spanish means “No Go!”Who wants to buy a car that “won’t go”?
We have a
similar problem when we read the Great Commission in English.The first word we read is “go.”It could lead us to think the main point of
the Great Commission is to go,but that’s not it at all.The issue is the Gospel of Matthew was
originally written in Greek.The Greek
language does not phrase sentences the same way we do in English.
A literal
translation of the Great Commission from Greek to English would say something
like:“Make
disciples when you go…”In other words, the main
point is to make disciples.It is assumed that you will go.And when you go, wherever you go, and in whatever you do, you should seek
to make disciples.
The Great
Commission should permeate every action of your life.You should make disciples when you go home to your family.You should make disciples when you go to work to make a living.You should make disciples when you go next door to your neighbor’s house.You should make disciples when you travel to a faraway land you’ve never been to
before.You should make disciples
when you become a parent and start
raising kids.You should make
disciples if you decide to
remain single or not have any kids.You
should make disciples next Sunday when you go to work on a project for Be the Church.You should make disciples whenever and
wherever you go and whatever you do.It
is the main point—the Great Commission.But I like the word go.It reminds us to be active.We’ve got to step on the gas and get
busy.
Listen to what James 2:14 says, “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if
you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of
faith save anyone?”
Sometimes
we in the church get so caught up in being “spiritual” (studying our Bibles,
praying, etc) that we forget to go
and make disciples.We become so
spiritually-minded that we are of no earthly good.
In thinking
about James 2:14, listen to what our music minister, David Crawford, wrote this
week.He said:
“I believe there is a similarity
between faith and prayer in this instance.Prayer is important, and is a power given to us that enables us to ask
for things we do not have the ability to achieve on our own with the resources
God has given us.But there are times
when action other than prayer is necessary to show God’s love, and do His will.Sometimes it is being God’s hands and feet
that may be the answer to the prayer of those unable to help themselves.Yes, you should pray, but don’t forget to
do.Faith without works….prayer without
deeds….we should all strive to Refuse to have one without the other.”
Closing
Are you
willing to obey the Great Commission from Jesus Christ?Are you willing to make disciples whenever
and wherever you go in whatever you do?Will you refuse to “sit around and wait for someone else to do what God
has called [you] to do [yourself]”?[ii]I hope so.Because what the world desperately needs is Christians who are willing
to go make disciples of all nations.
The Ten Commandments are the
overarching, guiding principles God gave us to live a godly life and live
in peace and harmony with others.They also show us how we fall short and desperately need God’s grace and
forgiveness.In addition to the ten
general commandments, there were 613 laws in the Old Testament that Jews were to
follow. (If you’re interested, you can
read a list of them at http://www.jewfaq.org/613.htm.How would you like to try and memorize 613
laws instead of just ten commandments?)
As you can imagine, people wanted
to know what the most important commandment was.You might want to know too.Well, someone asked Jesus about the greatest
commandment and he gave a simple answer.Let’s look at his answer.
Matthew 22:34-40
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the
Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again.35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap
him with this question:36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of
Moses?”
37 Jesus replied,“‘You must love theLordyour God with all your heart, all your soul, and all
your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment.39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on
these two commandments.”
In addition to the 613 laws of the Old Testament, were the
admonishments of all the Old Testament prophets and the teachings of countless rabbis.Jesus said all the laws and the prophets are
based on these two simple commandments—“Love God and love you neighbor.”And really, if you follow these rules, you
will fulfill every law and commandment listed in the Bible.
St. Augustine, one of the early
leaders of the church, once said: “Love, and do what you will.”[i]The point is that if you love, you will do
only good—to God and to others.If you
truly love God, you would not do anything to disrespect God, injure God, or
harm your relationship with Him.If you
love people, again you will do only good for them.Augustine said a bad person can do all sorts
of things we associate with good—they can prophecy, they can go to church, they
can take communion, they can even be called “Christians”—but, he says: “…to
have love and be a bad person is impossible. Love is the unique gift, the
fountain that is yours alone. The Spirit of God exhorts you to drink from it,
and in so doing to drink from himself.”[i]
Love God with All…
Jesus said, “You must love the Lord
your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind…”In other words:Love God with all everything you’ve got.Most of us want to pick and choose what we
devote to the Lord.“I will come to
church on Sunday—I will give God my time—but don’t ask me to do a service
project in the community.”Can you
imagine what good could be done in our communities if Christians would rise up
and truly Love God with all their community service?
Or we say, “I will pray for the
church and for people, but don’t ask me to give 10% of my income to the
church.”Do you realize how much good
goes undone throughout our nation because churches are in a financial
stranglehold?The tithe is not brought
into the house of God and all our anemic churches can do is weakly limp around
making the best of too little funding. I look at our own church and dream of
the amazing things we could do in this community if every member of our church
truly gave a tithe.But instead, I look
at the financial reports and realize that 9 out of 10 people sitting in this
congregation each Sunday is cheating the church by not giving a proper tithe.
Or we say, “I will give God my
money, but don’t ask me to witness—I don’t feel comfortable telling others what
Jesus has done in my life.”
Jesus didn’t say, love the Lord
your God with one thing and not the other.No, he said love the Lord your God with ALL—with everything in all areas
of your life.I’m so glad Jesus didn’t
love us the way we love him.Jesus gave
us everything.It was his complete,
unconditional, sacrificial love that redeemed us on the cross.And it calls for our complete, unconditional,
sacrificial love for God in return.
There are
two more points I want to make this morning and then we will celebrate Holy
Communion.First of all…
You can’t love God
without loving your neighbor…
1 John 4:20
says, “If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person
is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we
cannot see?”God did not send Jesus to the world for just a few select people.God love the whole world and sent Jesus to save the whole world—everyone.And if
God loves everyone, we—for the sake of our love for God—ought to love whomever
He loves.Do you love God?Good.This is how you show love for God:by loving your neighbor.(And
your neighbor is not just the people who live in your neighborhood.Your neighbor is every human being on the
planet, because God love them all—including people who don’t speak your
language, people who do bad things, people who live on the other side of the
planet, people who practice a different religion.)If you love God, then love your neighbor.You can’t love God without loving your
neighbor, and…
You Can’t Love your
neighbor without loving God…
Have you
ever tried loving people?It’s
exhausting!People are rude.They’re ungrateful.They take advantage of you.They disappoint you.They’ll attack you.They’ll “love” you when you have something they
want and forget about you when you don’t.And even the kindest, most patient, generous people in the world will
soon burn themselves completely out trying to love people unconditionally the
way God loves us.And here’s why:You can’t do it.You only have a finite amount of love in
you.You’re cup only has so much love in
it and once you pour it all out, you won’t have any more to give.
That’s why
you can’t love your neighbor without loving God.You see, you need an eternal source of
love.When you Love God, you are plugged
in to the well of Living Water that never runs dry.It’s a love that can die on the cross on Friday
and rise from the grave on Sunday.Any
human who wants to love people unconditionally has to be plugged into the God
who is the eternal source of unconditional love.You have to be filled with God’s love before
you can love others properly.And you’ve
got to keep filling up or you won’t have any love worth sharing with your
neighbors.
Be Filled With His Love
So today, I
invite you to come to the well.Jesus is
here.He wants to fill you with his love
so you can go pour yourself out.He
wants you to love God with all that you have and all that you are so you can go
love the world the way He does—the way He loves you.And if you will live this great commandment—to
love God and love your neighbor—you will fulfill everything written in the
Scriptures.But you can’t do it without
God’s help.So let us pray for God to
fill us with His love as we share this Blessed Sacrament.
"Father, God in Heaven, come fill us with Your love this day. Forgive us for the ways we have been selfish and even the ways we have tried to love others with our own inadequate means. Help us instead to love You with all that we have and all that we are so that we can love our neighbors as we love ourselves. I ask this in the name of Your precious son, Jesus. Amen."
[i]
Augustine’s Love Sermon - https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/study/module/augustine/