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The Sermon on the Amount

Introduction

I heard about a little girl who experienced a major breakthrough in her life when she learned to tie her own shoes. Instead of excitement, she was overcome by tears.

Her father asked, "Why are you crying?"

"I have to tie my shoes," she said.

"You just learned how. It isn't that hard, is it?"

"I know," she wailed, "but I'm going to have to do it for the rest of my life."

My hunch is that some of us feel the same way when it comes to Christian stewardship. We learn that it's exciting to give. But isn't there just a tiny bit of dread because we know we have to do it over and over again for the rest of our lives?

As I thought about preaching on stewardship, it occurred to me that maybe we should just skip the stewardship thing for a year. It's been a tough year: there's this major recession, people have been laid off, banks are failing, homeless people are walking the streets, the dollar has hit new lows, and the national debt has hit new highs. Why don't we just skip it this year? You're all nodding!

You know why we don't skip it? Stewardship is not an annual fundraising campaign. It is a lifestyle to which God has called us. I don't want anybody here to burst into tears because of this news, but stewardship is never over. Every Sunday is really Stewardship Sunday.

We have to define our terms a bit here. It's not just about giving money. Christian stewardship is really nothing less than all we do with all that we have. That includes money, a subject about which the Bible has a lot to say. Someone has taken the time to calculate that the Bible has about 500 verses on prayer, about 500 verses on faith, but more than 2,000 verses on money and possessions.

Jesus talked a lot about money. Of his 38 parables, almost half tell us how to handle money and possessions. In the Gospels, an amazing one out of ten verses deals directly with the subject of money. Money is not all that stewardship is about, but stewardship includes money.

Matthew 6:19-24, from the Sermon on the Mount, is one of those stewardship passages.

We must invest in heaven and not earth

You'll notice the passage begins with Jesus' recognizing that people are born with an investment instinct. People are born to save and treasure and to store up, as the passage says, "to value something."

That desire isn't bad. From Jesus' point of view, it's all a matter of focus. What are you saving for? What are you storing up for? Where are we depositing our resources of time, talent, and treasure? As one translation has it, Jesus says, "Don't keep making big investments for yourselves here on earth. Instead, make big investments for yourselves in heaven with God."

The passage is telling us that earthly treasure is a bad investment. Jesus says that sooner or later the moths are going to get to it. Our cashmere and cotton sweaters will begin to unravel someday. But even if our fortune is under lock and key so moths can't get to it, the rust will get at it and begin to corrode it. If the moth and rust don't destroy it, you can sure bet that thieves are going to get it.

There's an old Jack Benny joke in which a mugger accosts Benny and says, "Your money or your life!"

There's a brief silence, and the mugger says, "Well?"

Jack Benny says, "Don't rush me. I'm thinking, I'm thinking!"

Thieves will always come, and they will not always be so patient. They may not give you much time.

I love the way Clarence Jordan says it: "The thieves don't always poke a pistol in your ribs. Most of our assets are not taken with a pistol but with a pencil—just like that."

The most serious thief we face is death itself. You can be sure that, in the end, death will take it all.

Several years ago, construction workers were laying a foundation for a building outside the city of Pompeii. They found the corpse of a woman who must have been fleeing from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, but was caught in the rain of hot ashes. The woman's hands clutched jewels, which were preserved in excellent condition. She had the jewels, but death had stolen it all. That's the bottom line in life. Worldly treasure is not a wise investment because you can't take it with you.

Jim Elliot, a missionary who was martyred for his faith, understood this reality when he wrote in his journal, "A person is no fool to give up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose." It's not foolish to give up what you cannot keep in order to gain what you cannot lose.

That's what the text is calling us to. Don't make big investments for yourselves here on earth. Instead, make big investments for yourselves in heaven with God. We are born with an investment instinct. Notice that Jesus doesn't remove our desire to invest, but he does redirect it. Make big investments for yourselves in heaven, with God.

Heavenly treasure is a good investment because it's a sure thing. When we enter into a divine partnership, depositing the resources of our time, talents, and treasure in the business of building God's kingdom, we are valuing what's really valuable. Nothing can diminish the worth of that kind of investment, because it's an eternal investment. Because the dividends are out of this world, we are making heavenly investments. We try to figure out what God is up to and invest there. We're not trying to buy our way into the kingdom—but with God, our assets are safe and secure forever.

We cannot invest in both heaven and earth

Jesus doesn't let up in this passage. He goes on to underscore the impossibility of investing both ways. In verse 24, Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and Money." Some versions say you cannot serve God and Mammon. Mammon includes money, but it's more than just money. It's bigger than that. It's possessions. It's the attitude of wanting to get ahead, of striving after success. You cannot serve God and the good life. It's either/or.

We want to have it both ways sometimes. Don't we generally want to diversify our investments? That's one of the ways we play it safe. We want the prizes of both God and gain to be in the portfolios of our lives. So what if it causes us to be a little schizophrenic? Many of us would tend to agree with the inflation-fighting czar of Jimmy Carter's administration, who once said, "Anybody who isn't schizophrenic these days just isn't thinking clearly."

We can't have it both ways, just like it's not possible to look in two directions at one time. Verses 22 and 23, RSV translation, point out that, "In order to see clearly, our eyes have to be sound." "Healthy" is the word the new RSV uses. Focus on one thing at a time. If you have one eye on one thing and another eye on another thing, everything becomes blurry, and you will be in the dark.

That happens with your sight; it happens with your heart. When you're focused on one thing, God, and you're focused on another thing, gain, you really will be in the dark, Jesus says.

Jesus wants us to get focused. He's calling us to consolidate the capital of our lives and to be about God's business with all that we are and all that we have.

Notice how strong the language is: "No one can serve two masters." It's impossible. Jesus didn't say it's not a good idea to serve two masters, or you really shouldn't serve two masters. He said, "You cannot serve two masters." It's impossible.

That word "serve" is a strong one. There's no way of watering down that word. To be a servant is to be a slave. Jesus is telling us that we can belong to God or we can belong to getting it and making it. The question is: Does God own us, or does gain own us?

Jesus means the same thing when at verse 21 he says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

The heart is the center of a person's life. We talk about our heart's desire. My allegiance, my commitment is going to be to my heart's desire. What you value, what you treasure will be, what you're committed to at your core. Loyalty is indivisible. You can't parcel out pieces of ultimate allegiance. It's really all or nothing. Jesus said there are two choices: God or Mammon.

Professor Dale Bruner put it this way: When we try to be a part- time devotee of the god success, we will lose touch with the living Lord. We cannot work mainly for God and then moonlight for success. It's simply one or the other.

We need to clear up some misconceptions about stewardship

Jesus is saying some strong things here.

Jesus is not saying we can't earn a living. There's a big difference between earning a living and serving gain. Earning a living is necessary, but when we begin to make our net worth the sole indicator of our self-worth, we will come up short. There will be a spiritual deficit in our lives.

Jesus is not saying it's wrong to be rich or talented or have a lot of time and energy on your hands. In fact, I pray that there will be a lot of rich, talented, and energetic Christians in this world. The issue is what those people are doing with those resources. Where is their capital being invested? Right here, or for the kingdom's sake?

Jesus is not saying that we cannot have things. He is saying to watch out for thinking we own our possessions. We may wake up someday to find the possessions own us. Be careful.

Some of us say, "That's not such a big deal for me because I really don't own that much. I don't have to worry." The truth of the matter is we don't need to deal in mega-salaries to be a slave to Mammon. We can just as easily be enslaved by a desire for what we don't have. Nobody gets off the hook in this passage. All we need is a selfish and materialistic set of values that gives things, whether we have them or not, a worth they do not deserve. Jesus is not anti-material goods. Jesus is anti-"grab all you can."

This morning we are taking time to make known to the Lord our financial commitments to the church. This passage from the Sermon on the Mount can help us with that. In fact, I think this passage could appropriately be renamed the Sermon on the Amount. The amount Jesus is talking about is a pretty big amount: it's 100 percent. Stewardship is not just about how much of what I own will I give to God. It's about how much of me have I given to God.

Stewardship is not simply worrying about balancing the budget, as important as that is. It's about believing in God with all that we've got.

Stewardship is not about paying dues. Sometimes I wish it were because that would be easier: just tell me how much I owe, and I can pay the Lord just as I pay the bills. It's not paying dues. It's about deliberately making deposits of my time and my energy and what I own into God's business.

Stewardship is not fundamentally a fund-raising program. It is fundamentally an issue of faithfulness. It is a matter of where we focus.

Conclusion

I'll never forget when this idea of the Sermon on the Amount hit me for the first time. I'd been reading Clarence Jordan's commentary on this passage. He lived what he taught and preached. But he said that it won't work to hire out to Mammon and give a tenth of your wages to God, not even if you raise God's cut to one-fifth or even one-half. Fundamentally, stewardship begins with giving 100 percent of who I am to God.

How much of your income, then, should you give to the church? I don't know. With God's help, you figure it out. For some of us, the biblical tithe of 10 percent will be a step up. For others it will be something to go beyond. The important amount to keep in mind on this subject is the amount of 100 percent. What we give to the Lord in terms of tangible money and goods comes out of a life that is committed to him 100 percent.

In 1815 Napoleon was defeated in the battle of Waterloo, and the hero of that battle was the Duke of Wellington. The duke's most recent biographer claims to have an advantage over all the other previous biographers. His advantage was that he had found an old account ledger that showed how the duke had spent his money: that, says the biographer, was a far better clue to what the duke thought was really important than reading his letters or his speeches.

Can you imagine that? If someone wrote your biography on the basis of your checkbook or your income-tax return, what might it say about you, your loyalties, your focus, and about whom you serve?

For Your Reflection

Personal growth: How has this sermon fed your own soul? ___________________________________________

Skill growth: What did this sermon teach you about how to preach? ____________________________________________________________________________

Exegesis and exposition: Highlight the paragraphs in this sermon that helped you better understand Scripture. How does the sermon model ways you could provide helpful biblical exposition for your hearers? ____________________________________________________________________________

Theological Ideas: What biblical principles in this sermon would you like to develop in a sermon? How would you adapt these ideas to reflect your own understanding of Scripture, the Christian life, and the unique message that God is putting on your heart? ____________________________________________________________________________

Outline: How would you improve on this outline by changing the wording, or by adding or subtracting points? _____________________________________________________________________

Application: What is the main application of this sermon? What is the main application of the message you sense God wants you to bring to your hearers? ____________________________________________________________________________

Illustrations: Which illustrations in this sermon would relate well with your hearers? Which cannot be used with your hearers, but they suggest illustrations that could work with your hearers? ____________________________________________________________________________

Credit: Do you plan to use the content of this sermon to a degree that obligates you to give credit? If so, when and how will you do it?

Heidi Husted Armstrong is an ordained Presbyterian pastor who has ministered in West Coast churches for more than two decades. She also serves as an editorial advisor for Christianity Today's Gifted for Leadership. Heidi and her husband, Rick, live in Tacoma, Washington.

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Sermon Outline:

Introduction

I. We must invest in heaven and not earth

II. We cannot invest in both heaven and earth

III. We need to clear up some misconceptions about stewardship

Conclusion