God and Money

Auto-generated from the audio — may contain errors.

0:00 But today, what I want to be thinking about for the next several weeks is what does it mean? How are we able, called, empowered, but also in what specific ways are we to be the church in Orlando today? I've been using for myself for a while this idea of the church as the people called out

0:31 from the world to live under the reign of God. The church is the people called out of the world to live under the reign of God. And there's a lot of things that make that possible and then that go with that. But if I think about when I say the church, what do I mean by the church? I mean the church is the people who have been called out of the world in order to live under the reign of God. And then a companion idea for me in that for the last really guiding principle for me for

1:06 the last 10 years of my life at least since we've been in this evolution of congregation and church together across Orlando has been that the people living under the reign of God in the world but not of it create their own culture. The reign of God, the place where God is in charge, those people together create their own culture. And it's informed by the world that they live in but it is not the same as.

1:40 And so last week I mentioned that as the way of Jesus, as the church, the people got called out of Jewish culture, this is what much of New Testament is trying to figure out. What is the culture of the reign of God in conversation with Israelite culture in first century? Which practices do we retain and which practices are new? What does our culture look like? What does mercy look like? What's our relationship to money look like? How do we understand beauty? How do we understand justice?

2:11 Who do we look to as the authority? And so that the church is creating its own culture in the first century and then if you go through time the church as it interacts with North Africa becomes Coptic Christianity. As it interacts with Middle East pushing into Eastern cultures it gets Eastern Orthodoxy. As it interacts with the Roman Empire and the structure and the hierarchies it gets the Roman Catholic Church. As it interacts with the Enlightenment and the Germanic and Western European it gets

2:45 Protestantism. And then as the church, the people called out from the world to live under the reign of God, interact with the American experiment and manifest destiny. We get things like evangelicalism and the movements that have happened in American Protestant Christianity. All the time the people called out from the world looking to live under the reign of God are interacting with different cultures and it's helpful to know that we will but also

3:15 what our distinctives are so that we don't become the same as the cultures but we embody our own. And our job is not to transform somehow to make America the church. Our job is just to be the church in America just as Paul was called to be the church in Rome. And so I want to think about what does the culture of the church look like.

3:50 And last week we started talking about how the people living under the reign of God, the church, how the church, what its relationship to money is, the big part of culture is how you engage with the economy. We talked about this prime characteristic of the church with respect and money is around generosity. That the church is a place that is generous. The church is known throughout the world in every culture and time as a place of generosity.

4:26 Several weeks ago we talked and asked too about how there was no poor among them. One of my favorite little phrases about generosity comes from this autobiography that I read years ago, 15 years ago maybe now I was in college and I read this autobiography of a guy named Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor was one of the first missionaries that went to China and you guys know him.

4:57 And I don't remember a lot from that book, a couple of big ideas but this one little quote was getting ready to go live on nothing in China. And he was like, he had quit his job and was getting ready to go take the gospel to China. And so he was living on nothing in London. And someone said Hudson Taylor, it's going to be hard to live on nothing. How are you going to have the things that you need?

5:29 And he said the cattle on a thousand hills belong to my god. All the money in all the world is his. I refuse to believe that my god is poor. He said, he'll make sure I have what I need. So the first thing to think about with the church, our relationship to money is it is characterized by generosity but it is characterized by generosity because we know and understand and believe

6:00 that all the money in all the world belongs to God because Jesus is in charge because he died, rose, ascended, sits on the throne and governs the world now and makes sure that his are taken care of. The cattle on a thousand hills belong to my god. He's quoting scripture there. He's quoting Psalm 50. I looked it up. It's pretty interesting because God is rebuking the church in Psalm 50 when he says that.

6:33 He says, don't give to me with your sacrifices as though I needed your stuff. You come to me with your bowls and your lambs. Don't bring me your generosity as though you're paying me off as though you're checking a box as though your things mean something to me. He says, if I were hungry, I wouldn't call you. He says that in Psalm 50. If I were hungry, I wouldn't ask you the cattle on a thousand hills belong to me.

7:08 This is where I want to pick up for this week. Generosity is not about your surplus. The church, the people of God called out from the world live under the reign of Jesus are generous, not because they have so much that they can give some away. If you struggle with generosity, it's hard for you to let loose of money.

7:38 I talked last week about how when I learned how to manage money with my $2 a week allowance, it was incumbent upon me to take two dimes every week to the church. I just have always times. I just have always taken 10% of what I have and given it to the church even when I had nothing. $2.20. If generosity is hard for you, it's not because you don't have enough.

8:09 You may not have enough, but generosity has nothing to do with that. Generosity does not come from surplus. It's not like once I have enough, then I'll be able to be generous. That's not how it works. That's not generosity. That's just like apathy or something. That's just like this is the money I don't care about. This is my protection.

8:39 Generosity is not about surplus. Look what Paul says as he's trying to be the church in Rome to the gathering, the congregation, and Philippians, his letter to the Philippians. It's towards the back of your copy of the New Testament. If you get in the New Testament, Matthew Mark Loo-John, Acts, Romans 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians 1 and 2 Thessalonians. We want Philippians and we want the end of it.

9:15 You remember that Paul's life is a little bit bonkers, right? It's worth noting just briefly, we'll talk about this a little bit later, but like Paul sets out on his great missionary journey, actually several great missionary journeys, but he seems pretty unique. There's a couple other people going around Peter a little bit, right? But Paul doesn't tell everyone, I'm on this missionary journey.

9:47 Now that you're converted, you go out on this missionary journey. Let's talk about this tomorrow in a couple of weeks. Paul's life is crazy because he's constantly on a missionary journey, and as he goes around to a place he might say there a year or two years, he cultivates, as people respond to the gospel, he puts those church called out from the world, invited to live under the reign of Jesus, to live as congregations. Little congregations of the church in Thessalonica, in Ephesus, in Colate, right?

10:19 And in Philippi, there's a group. And he writes letters back to them all the time, but he's like just surviving on the kindness of the world and the provision of God and his capacity when he needs to to like knit together tents for people. Where the phrase tent maker comes from, Paul actually was a tent maker. And so at different times he's in prison for causing trouble, right? The trouble he causes is follow Jesus instead of Rome, listen to Jesus' economy instead

10:50 of the economy of the idols. He causes problems sometimes and he gets put in jail. And so periodically the churches that he sends letters to send him things to live off of, right? And church in Philippi, he's writing the letter back to them because they just sent somebody to him with some stuff. Which Paul is grateful for. And in chapter 4, towards the end, look with me at chapter 4 verse 10.

11:25 He says, Paul says, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity now that I am speaking. Now, not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

11:56 I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of facing, plenty, and hunger, abundance, and needs. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. This might be actually really tireless for some of us. I have learned how to be content in times of plenty and need. This is that famous phrase I can do all things through him who strengthens me is how to be content in any situation.

12:31 When I was kind of thinking and contemplating this idea and Paul in that situation, I was remembering a book that I read, another one I read in college. This one a professor assigns for me to read. It was dense. I wouldn't have read it on my own. I had to write a paper about it so I had to make sure I understood it. It's a sociology book. It's called The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Anybody read it? The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by the German sociologist named Max Weber.

13:02 It's a famous book. But he's talking to sociologists trying to understand how capitalism took hold in America. This is fascinating to me. This is the one idea that stuck with me from this book. He said that Europe was a mostly agrarian economy at the time that we settled America. People had tried to get the workers on the farms to produce more.

13:33 What they had done was normally you just got a flat rate. You get this flat rate, you're out on the farm, you work, you produce. What they did was they said there were several experiments where they said, we'll pay you by how much you bring in not just the fact that you have this job. We'll set the rate so that you could work the same amount of hours and make more money if you just bring in some more.

14:03 What they found over and over again was that the people worked harder for less time and made the same amount of money. That money was not an incentivizer for them to work harder. They said, this is all I need to live off of. So I'll just work half a day and then go home instead of working all day. It's a long and convoluted story on how capitalism takes hold,

14:38 once you see how all the momentum of the economy in the American experiment is around accumulation. So forgone conclusion that it is good for us to gather as much stuff as possible and just sit amongst our things, right? Or at least organize our money infinitely.

15:12 Now this is not necessarily our fault, right? We have lost track of how much we are sold things all the time. We have completely lost track of how much we are sold things all the time. But there is a completely different notion to say, I'm engaging in economy, I'm engaging with money,

15:44 with the goal of a content life, or the goal of blessing people around me, or I'm engaging with money and economy just to get as much as possible. And I think usually it's very easy to slide into the notion that we accumulate things because on the other side of our accumulation is happiness,

16:17 and we have a lot of content, and we have a lot of content, and we have a lot of content, and we have a lot of content, and we have a lot of content, and we have a lot of content, and it is where generosity lies.

16:51 It's so easy to try and make money do the thing that only God can do. Money can't make you safe. Money can't make you happy. Money can't give you purpose, at least not a purpose that can sustain the weight of your life. It will be an unfulfilling hollow purpose.

17:27 It's so easy to try and make money do the things that only God can do. In the fundamental notion of the culture among the people of God throughout history and time is this different relationship to the economy, to money. This is why Jesus is slipping over the tables in the temple. He can't believe that inside the church they are extorting the poor to capitalize on a monopoly in money-changing.

18:01 They are just grabbing whatever money they can. Throughout time, Christian people have been wealthy and poor. They engage in the economy in order to build and create and make and bless and care for people, not to accumulate and take things. I have learned over the ten years to really love building little businesses. Because of what you can do through business, you can employ people, you can release people, you can make things.

18:39 Business is beautiful, but it is not the means by which I gather and hoard. In the church, we engage with money to blast and create. It's outward focused. Our contentment comes not from what we get, but from God. Paul breaks us down if we back up just a little bit in Philippians and go start at chapter 4, verse 4.

19:11 Same chapter, just go back a few verses. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. I got a pause one time because I... Years ago, I read this book called Deep Economy. I'm quoting all the books I read today, but it's because I've been thinking about this economy stuff for a long time. And the book is built on this idea of what if you had an economy that was focused on life satisfaction instead of accumulation.

19:42 It's called Deep Economy. It's really fascinating. And he looks at life satisfaction studies. And he starts quoting some different segments of the population, right? It was written in the early 2000s, the most recent setting he could get was from 1998, where they did some life satisfaction studies of different segments of the population. One of the ones that's my most favorite that he quotes is they compare 1998 Forbes richest Americans, the richest Americans on Forbes list to Pennsylvania Amish, like horse and buggy and no electricity.

20:21 And these two groups of people are equally satisfied with their life, in their life satisfaction study. Because life satisfaction is not about whether you're driving the newest Audi or you're driving a horse and buggy, it's about who's inside the thing. It's about who you are. And the beauty of living under the reign of God is that you can be recreated into a person who is content regardless of the circumstances, whether you have plenty or need.

20:51 And so Paul talks a little bit about how we get there. Chapter four verse four, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I'll say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. When I read this, I thought about the last time I was on Amazon getting something and invited me to add it to my wish list. If I'm willing to tell Amazon the things that I want and am waiting for, I ought to be able to also tell God the things that I want and am waiting for.

21:29 Right? Like, in Amazon, it's not the only one. We're building wish lists in our mind and on all these web things and how often do we talk to God about the things that we want? Right? Why do you want the new clothes? How do you feel about yourself? Why do you want the new home accessory? How do you feel about your home? Right? Why do you want the new car? How do you feel about your status? Like, we're lining up wish lists all over the place. When was the last time we came to God?

21:59 And in thankfulness for what we had, laid before him also the things that we need. Paul says, if you want to be a person who's content in all things, start here. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. The peace of God which confounds the world. When the world says, this person ought to be freaked out.

22:31 Because I don't see how it's going to come together. It may not come together for you, but you carry peace when it's together and when it's falling apart. Because your contentment is not tied to the things but to the God. Finally, brothers, he says, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. If there is any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things. And when you are learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things.

23:02 And then the God of peace will be with you. We get to be generous. We get to engage in money and economy, not for accumulation, but for blessing. We find contentment in peace when we move towards God. Then we can fully be the church with respect to money and economy and business in the world. It will transform our experience of life and it will do what the church is intended to be. The church, when it has this relationship to money, will be a city on a hill that everyone looks at and goes, oh my gosh, we're all running around like chickens with our head cut off trying to accumulate everything.

23:42 And they have peace, whether they have stuff or not. And it draws people to the God through you. I'm hoping that we can take these practices in Philippians chapter 4, go to God with our needs, come in with Thanksgiving, and think about what is praise, where they cultivate a sense of contentment so that we can be people of blessing with money. We are generous folks that create in the world because we have been liberated by God and we operate from a place of contentment and peace.

24:17 Let me pray towards that end. Hey Lord, make us your church today. Call us out from the world. Teach us what it means to live under your reign. And Lord, bring us to you this morning.

24:51 Teach us how to focus on all your praise worthy and good work in the world and in our lives that we might cultivate spirits of peace and contentment. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.