Eternal Investments

Good morning. I love that video. I love how clearly it draws a line between ministry and generosity because those things are so closely related. So I want to begin this morning by asking you what was the last thing you gave away? Maybe it was some secondhand clothing or some old board games that you dropped off at Goodwill recently, or maybe you went to a baby shower or a birthday party and you took a gift, or maybe you took a box of donuts to work to share with the office.

Maybe you gave somebody a piece of your mind this week. I don't know. Was it a donation that you made to your child or your grandchild or maybe a neighbor kids school fundraiser or a financial gift to our church or to some other ministry? So we've been talking about giving for the last few weeks, and giving takes a variety of different forms. But today is our final installment in this series we called Crowdfunding the Kingdom.

And in case you're just joining us for the first time, which is true of a number of people with us every single Sunday, if you're new with us today, we're so glad that you're here. Let me take just a moment to catch you up on where we've been over the last three weeks. We began by saying that everything we have is God's. In the Old Testament book of Psalms, chapter 24, David wrote, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. What David is saying is we can't take sole credit for anything we have because ultimately it is God who provides us the ability and the intelligence and the strength and the opportunity to work and earn income.

And since it's all his anyway, the question to ask is not how much of my resources am I going to give away? The question is, how much of God's resources am I going to keep for myself? The second thing we've talked about in this series is that our giving is God's strategy for funding the work of ministry. Crowdfunding is all around us, and crowdfunding was actually God's idea. When we follow Jesus, he calls us into connection with a local church and to leverage whatever he has blessed us with, like our abilities and our energies and our finances in a way that glorifies him and serves others.

God blesses us with good things, both for our enjoyment and to equip us to share with others. But sharing is not our natural instinct. Our natural tendency is to accumulate everything we can and still want more. Right? That's sort of the American way.

So in order for our blessings to have the impact that God truly intends. We have to make the very countercultural decision to actually live on less than our full income, so we have the bandwidth to share. So last week we said that contentment with less leaves more margin to bless. And we each have to decide at some point that we have enough and that if and when we receive more, we'll share that overflow in ways that bless others and in ways that fuel ministry. Ultimately, giving is how we invest wealth that doesn't last in a kingdom that does.

Now, these principles are on display throughout Scripture because God wants his people to be characterized both by gratitude for his blessings and generosity in sharing those blessings with others. In the Old Testament, God commanded Israel to give a tithe of their crops and their livestock. A tithe just meant that they gave the first 10% right off the top. And those gifts provided a living for the priests and their families. They funded Israel's annual worship festivals, and they provided help to the poor among them who were really in need.

But in the New Testament, Jesus stepped up on that foundation and he raised the bar. See, rather than teaching his followers to just give 10% and then call it good, he actually urged us to be intentionally, consistently, excellently generous. So over the past few weeks, we've unpacked principles about giving that God gave through Moses and through David and through the prophet Ezra and through the apostle Paul. But today I want to wrap up this series by taking a closer look at some of Jesus very specific teachings about generosity, starting with this one. Number one, money makes a lousy master.

Worshiping God and worshiping him only is such a foundational thing that God actually included that in the Ten Commandments, right? And while that certainly means that you and I shouldn't duplicate Israel's chronic mistake of making idols with our hands and bowing down to them or worshiping false pagan gods, it's a bigger principle than just that. There's a text we looked at last week that's found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter six, and it's worth looking at again. Very quickly. Jesus said, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy.

We have some pumpkins we set on our porch as fall decorating. They become a buffet for the squirrels. They've just been destroyed over the last few days. That's what happens to a lot of things in this world and where thieves break in and steal. But then Jesus said, store up for yourselves instead treasures in heaven where moths and vermin and squirrels do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The world that we live in is full of things to see and want and buy and collect and accumulate. And that is the way the majority of our world lives. But there are problems with making that our primary focus. For starters, our stuff doesn't last.

You know, that favorite pair of jeans, there reaches a point where they're so threadbare, they're not decent to wear in public anymore, right? That happens to us. The first car I owned was a 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix. Made me feel old this week when I realized that car is now nearly 50 years old. I'm pretty confident it is not on the road.

It probably isn't running anymore. When I was in college, I bought a killer stereo system. I loved that thing. But a few years later, my kids broke the stylus on the turntable, and one one of Allison's candles melted wax all over one of my speakers. And I can't tell you the last time I needed a dual cassette deck.

I haven't had that stereo in years. I actually sold it 26 years ago when we were getting ready to move to this faraway place called Greenwood, Indiana. Our stuff doesn't last. And not only that, our stuff demands attention. Homes require insurance and maintenance and cleaning.

So do cars and motorcycles and boats. Landscaping has to be maintained. Tools have to be stored. More clothing means more laundry. Plants have to be watered.

All those holiday decorations that your neighbors complement, they take time to set up and they take time to tear down. And you have to store them somewhere in the off season. See, whatever we value will require our time and our attention. And we all have exactly the same amount of time and attention available. It's a limited commodity.

So the more we give to that stuff, the less we have to give to anything else. And that's why Jesus went on in Matthew 6 to remind us that no one can serve two masters. Either you'll hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. We might hear Jesus say that and be inclined to say, well, Jesus, I agree with that.

I mean, I don't serve money. I just like to have nice stuff. I relate to that. But the more nice things we have, the more our lives are going to be spent keeping track of and taking care of all of those things. Buying bigger and bigger homes to store all of our stuff.

Shuffling things between our attics and our garages and our basements. And our storage units, scrutinizing the ups and the downs of the stock market and anxiously watching as hurricanes move dangerously close to our vacation homes. Now, it isn't wrong to have those things, but there comes a point when we own so many things that those things actually begin to own us. And that is not the life that Jesus calls us to. So giving is how we invest wealth that doesn't last in a kingdom that does.

Now, there's a second principle that Jesus taught, and it could be stated like this. Jesus said, it is good to be rich toward God. Now what does that mean exactly? Well, Jesus said, watch out. He said, be on your guard against all kinds of greed.

Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. In other words, the value and the quality of your life and mine is not determined by how much money we have or by how much stuff we own. And using that statement as a launchpad, Jesus told this story. He said the ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, what shall I do?

I have no place to store my crops. Poor guy. His big barns just weren't big enough to hold all of his stuff. I mean, what do you do when every shelf that you own is loaded with books and then some new ones get released? Or what do you do when your closet is already overflowing but you're at the mall and you see a sweater or a jacket that you really like?

Or what do you do when you have a vehicle parked in every bay of your four car garage and then you suddenly see a new car that you really want? Well, you could choose to be content with what you already have. As strange as that sounds, you could give some stuff away, or you could buy more bookcases and remodel your closet and move to a bigger house with a bigger garage, which is the path that this farmer chose in Jesus story. Then he said, this is what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and there I will store my surplus grain and, and I'll say to myself, self, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years.

Take life easy. Eat, drink and be merry. So this guy experienced an amazing, just record breaking crop and he immediately assumed that it was all for him. Now, to many people, that's the epitome of the American dream to amass more wealth than you could ever possibly need and then kick back and spend the rest of your life doing whatever you want. But one of the problems with that goal is that we can't predict the future.

And this particular farmer's future didn't go at all like he expected. But God said to him, you fool, this very night, your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? And the answer is, somebody else is going to get it, because we can't take any of our stuff with us. And after telling that story about this rich farmer with his bigger and better barns, Jesus said this.

He said, this is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God. So again, what does it mean to be rich toward God? Is Jesus saying that if we stockpile cash or if we build huge collections of sports memorabilia or action figures or comic books or cars or rental properties, that we're suddenly gonna drop dead? No. Jesus point was that if our own wealth and our own comfort is all we invest in, then when this life ends, we will have nothing.

That's what Jesus is saying here. That's why he urged us to store up treasures in heaven, that to pay his blessings forward, to invest in his kingdom, to help others find eternal life in him. My friend Cory Camacho was baptized back in September, and he baptized his son Landon about three weeks ago. And when I reached out to tell Corey how excited I was to celebrate that baptism moment with Landon, Cory replied. And he told me, since being invited to our church in January, said my faith has grown tremendously.

I'm so grateful to have the GCC community in my life, walking alongside me and my family. Before this, I hadn't attended church in 20 years, but now GCC feels like home. I've read through Galatians with the church, as well as Romans and First Corinthians, and I'm now starting Second Corinthians. Thank you for guiding my family and me in our faith with Christ. See, Corey and his family, like many of us, are on a spiritual journey that began with an invitation.

And we have a church that he could be invited to and a community that he can connect with and messages he can learn from. Because many of us choose on a regular basis to give. Many of us have come to understand that giving is how we invest wealth that doesn't last in a kingdom that does. Which is why we're directing this year's Christmas offering toward a medical clinic in Ghana, West Africa. This is Nathaniel, who is the pastor of a church in the village of Laurie.

He's also the chaplain of the clinic. And this gentleman's name is Bright. And Bright is the director of the clinic there. The village of Laurie is located in an area with a lot of Muslim influence. But those who come to the clinic that we're gonna help to build will have the opportunity not only to receive medical care, but also to hear about Jesus.

Which means that as we invest in projects like this, there will come a day when you and I get to heaven, and we're gonna meet people there from Ghana who are with us for eternity because we gave to make a clinic a reality. And in that clinic, they had the opportunity to hear about Jesus. To be rich toward God is to give and share resources in a way that acknowledges God as the source of everything we have and points other people to him. Now, a third principle that Jesus taught about generosity is this one. Jesus stressed that generosity is a relative concept.

In the gospel of Mark, we're told that Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put, and he 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 of a few cents.

And Jesus called his disciples to him. And this is what he said to them. He said, truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. Now suppose that after this service, you and I walked out the back doors to the black generosity box that's out there in the breezeway, and I reached into my pocket and I pulled out two shiny pennies and probably some lint, and I dropped those in the box. And then you, right behind me, dropped $10,000 in the box.

Would anybody suggest that I had given more than you had? No. Jesus wasn't making a statement about math. That's clearly not how math works. What Jesus was pointing out is this.

He said to his disciples, all these people, they all gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything, all she had to live on.

When a person who lives on a fixed Social Security income gives $100, that is proportionally a bigger sacrifice than when a person with a six figure salary gives $1,000. Jesus didn't lift this woman up as a model of financial management. Dave Ramsey would not approve if everything you own got put into the offering. If we all gave away everything we have, then we would all very quickly be in need of others financial help, and we wouldn't be able to give anything to anybody. But Jesus highlighted what this woman did because he applauded the sacrificial nature of her gift.

Generosity is measured not just in the amount of the gift, but in the sacrifice it represents. And When I read the story, it reminds me of something I witnessed back in July when I was in Ghana and I got to worship at a church. I want you guys to see this, this video for a moment during the worship services at Transformation Christian Church when it's time for the offering. They don't have fancy schmancy mobile apps or online giving capabilities. The people just, they kind of dance their way to the front, almost like a conga line, and they, they drop their offerings in there.

You know, when I give through our mobile app, I can designate, I want to give so much to Fun and so much to Operation Care and so much to our Christmas offering. They actually collect separate offerings during the service for each of those different things. So there were three different moments when people came forward to, to give their gifts. And it makes me wonder if that needs to be a component. Like if you go out to the generosity box here, you got to like, do a little bit of that sort of thing as you drop it in there.

I don't know, when you, when you hit give on your mobile app, just get your groove on for a second. What was so cool to me to see was that these people, by our standards, have very.

They have so little, and yet they cheerfully and they joyfully gave to the things that their church was doing in their community because they understand that giving is how we invest wealth that doesn't last anyway in a kingdom that does. Now, the honest reality is we need to acknowledge this. Anytime we talk about financial things, we don't all have the same resources, which means that we don't all have the same capacity for generosity. So God never asks us. And it certainly isn't my intention to ask us to give in a way that we are not capable of.

But this whole series has led up to three specific challenges that I want to lay in front of us today as a church. And the first challenge I want to extend to all of you is an invitation to be a part of what God is doing here. I want to challenge every one of us to be a part of what's happening here. I'm going to share some numbers with you. We've crunched some numbers over the last few weeks because I want to give you some, some real time data that you can chew on a little bit.

There are approximately 3,000 people who attend our church at least some of the time. Now, you'll never see all 3,000 of us here at one time, but there are about 3,000 people who, if asked, would say, greenwood Christian Church is my church and we estimate that those 3,000 people make up approximately a thousand distinct households. Last year, our last. Our 20, 24 last calendar year, we. We received financial support, financial gifts from 528 households.

And we thank God for that. But if you're doing the math in your head that I did when I realized those figures, you've already come to the conclusion that that would suggest that nearly half of us who attend gcc, we don't give financially. See, our giving, it's a part of following Jesus. It is a part of belonging to his church. And our goal is not to wring money from anybody.

What we really want is we want all of us to be able to look at the good things that God is doing in ministry and be able to say, I was a part of that. We want to see lives being changed and be able to say, I invested in that. We want every one of us to be able to do that. Generosity begins not with being wealthy, but with being willing. Having more doesn't automatically make us generous.

If I'm not generous with what I have now, you could double my income. And that will not instantly make me a giver. And having less doesn't mean that we can't be generous at all. Generosity begins with a simple decision to give whatever we're capable of. I'm excited to share that.

In the last 13 months or so, 81 families have chosen to give something to our church for the first time. And that's great news. Not just in a budgetary sense. I get excited about that because that reflects ownership, that reflects belonging, that reflects people saying, I want to be a part of what's happening here. When we decide that what God is doing here is important enough to invest in, that we invite God with our gifts to work in our lives.

So if you've never before invested anything financially in Greenwood Christian Church, I want to ask you simply, would you start? We'd be happy to answer any of your questions about how to do that or if you have questions or concerns or skepticisms about how those funds might be used. We'd love to talk with you as transparently as we can about that as well. Remember, giving is how we invest wealth, which, by the way, doesn't last anyway. Kingdom that does.

So I want to challenge each of us, number two, to give what you can and give with a plan. There's a point in the New Testament when the Apostle Paul. We referenced this a couple of weeks ago when Paul shared with churches around the Mediterranean Rim that believers in Judea, because of a severe famine in that part of the world were really struggling. They were really having a hard time even feeding themselves. And he challenged these other churches to help.

And as he issued that challenge, along with it, he handed out a specific giving strategy. Paul said, on the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up so that when I come, no collections will have to be made. Now, we can't all give the same amount because we don't all have the same amount. But the beauty of giving regularly, like on the first day of every week, in keeping with our income, is that it ties what we give directly to what we have. If we have more, we give more.

If we have less, we give less. When it's proportionate, that's how it works. Now. When I was in grade school, my parents gave me a weekly allowance of, brace yourselves, 50 cents. Some people grow up with a silver spoon in their mouth.

Mine was more like a Taco Bell spork, Although I'm not sure the spork had been invented yet at that point in history. So I got 50 cents a week as my allowance for doing some chores around the house. And every Sunday, I dropped a nickel in the offering plate at church. That was my tithe, my first 10%. And I felt good about that.

But then when I got to high school, I took a retail job that gave me my first ever $200 paycheck. For some reason, giving $20 of that paycheck felt like a lot more than dropping a nickel in the offering plate. But proportionately, it was no greater sacrifice. We're not all gonna follow the same giving plan, But I wanna challenge all of us to actually have a giving plan. I wanna encourage all of us, as a matter of following Jesus and belonging to his church, to make generosity enough of a priority that.

That we actually plan for it, that we budget for it. Because you know what? We will never be generous by accident. You will never wake up some morning and discover that to your surprise, you did something generous the day before without a plan. It will never happen.

When it comes to supporting ministry, I want you to hear this. What you give is between you and the Lord. It really is. But could I challenge all of us to ask ourselves a few questions as we think about what that ought to look like in our lives? For starters, in light of all God has blessed me with, am I giving generously?

Not just am I giving, but am I giving in a way that reflects generosity? In light of my resources, number two, do I Give in a way that I feel. Am I sacrificing anything in a conscious way in order to be generous? Or do I only give out of leftovers after I've bought everything, spent everything on the things that I want? Number three, when was the last time I compared my giving to my income?

Sometimes, you know, we make a decision early in our lives that we want to give in a certain way and we stretch ourselves to do that. And so we begin making that gift and it becomes a regular thing. But our income continues to grow and our giving doesn't. So let me just ask, when was the last time you evaluated your giving in light of the way God is blessing you? And then number four, when I receive extra.

By extra, I mean more than I need to live on. If I receive a bonus or a pay raise or an inheritance or a profit from the sale of an asset, do I see that as simply more for me? Or do I see that as a tool that provides me an opportunity to share? Giving is how we invest wealth that doesn't last in a kingdom that does. So thinking through questions like these is an important part of developing a giving plan.

And as more and more of us choose to live and to give generously, I believe we can do this third thing that I want to encourage all of us to be a part of, and that is to unleash Sleeping Giant. Let me tell you what I mean by that. I'm so grateful for all the good that our collective giving to Greenwood Christian Church allows us to do. We come together every Sunday morning and have what I just find to be very engaging worship experiences. I love the time that we spend together and our giving makes that possible.

Because we give, we provide affordable daycare and Christian education to about 500 kids and their families. Five days a week, we serve a free weekly meal to dozens of people. We distribute about $130,000 in assistance to local families with their rent and utilities and other basic needs. Because of our giving, we support ministries that are reaching people for Jesus in several other parts of the world and we send several teams each year on short term mission trips. Because of our giving, we host events for kids and for students and we impact our community.

We with our annual Serve Day. Because we give, we are able to share space with several recovery support groups. Last weekend we hosted a women's conference and I could add more to that list. What I want you to know is our giving is what makes all of that possible. And I thank God for our giving.

But the mathematical reality is this we do what we currently do in ministry because that's what our current resources will allow us to do in ministry. Did you know that we turned down numerous requests for Operation Care Help because we don't have any more funds to give? Did you know that there are really effective strategic ministry partnerships going on in other parts of our country, other parts of our world that we would love to invest in and partner with, but the funds simply aren't there? Did you know that the oldest parts of our facility are now 25 years old and we are beginning to face some, some big picture long term maintenance issues that our regular budget funds simply are not prepared to address? When I shared with you a few moments ago that only about half of those who attend our church currently give to support our church, I need to double click and zoom in on that reality just for a minute.

Last year we collectively gave a little over two and a half million dollars to our general fund. And I'm so grateful for that, I truly am. But what I need you to know is this. I need you to know that 46% of that $2.5 million was given by only 51 households.

In other words, this is what I'm saying. Nearly half of our operating budget as a church is given by 5% of our congregation, financially speaking. Here's what that means. It means that we're doing a lot of ministry that I'm really excited about, but we're doing it with our little finger. We're doing a lot of ministry with an arm and a leg tied behind our back.

Because we're not all invested. You know, after a stroke, a person may experience weakness or paralysis on one side of their body. And when you only have the use of one arm and one leg, it's hard to run or do push ups or climb stairs or swim. And if only half of our congregation is financially invested, that means we are practically functioning with only half of our body. We're not doing all the ministry that God has called us to do.

We're not doing all the ministry that there is to do. We're doing all the ministry that our current level of investment will allow us to do. So to all of us who are invested in a planned, strategic, generous, committed way, I just want to say thank you because your giving makes an enormous difference in a lot of people's lives. I want you to know that we are deeply grateful for every single gift and the sacrifice that it represents. But I also need to ask all of us this.

Can you imagine with me what we could do in ministry if we all gave in actual proportion to the resources that God provides us. Can you imagine how we could impact our community in even bigger and more impactful ways? How many more missionaries we could send? How many more churches we could plant? How many more global ministries are doing phenomenal work that we could actually invest in in an even more substantial way?

Can you imagine how many more local families we could come alongside and help with rent or utilities and help them get back on their feet? We could address issues like roof leaks and H vac failures without having to take anything from ministry budgets to do it. We could eliminate the last of our building debt, which we're already paying down aggressively, and be able to reallocate 100% of those mortgage payments for ministry. God has provided us 100% of the resources necessary to do the work that he calls us to. But before it can be used in that way, we have to decide to give.

My friend Shan Rutherford used to tell a joke. He would say that a preacher got up and he told his congregation that the good news is God has provided 100% of the funds that we need to do ministry this year. The bad news is it's all still in your bank accounts.

And that's how this works. We have to come to a place. Friends, we are so thankful for God's blessings that we cannot imagine not sharing them. Gratitude is the gateway to generosity. What we think of as our money is not our money.

It's God's and it is graciously provided to us. And when we see and we appreciate God's generosity to us, that is how our hearts begin to become more inclined to be generous ourselves. God doesn't want and I don't want. Please hear me on this. God doesn't want us and I don't want us to grudgingly give because some jerk faced preacher got up here and twisted our arm.

That is not what this is about. He wants us to value his mission so much that we would purposefully and gratefully and generously share his blessings and trust him to keep replenishing as we continue to give away. Giving is how we invest wealth that doesn't last in a kingdom that does. Will we give God our best? That's the question.

Will we give him our best? Pray, Lord God, we're grateful this morning to have this time together. God, I love this place and these people. I'm so grateful to come here. For the last 26 years, this has been my family.

And I'm so grateful for all that I have learned, all the ways in which I've been challenged and sharpened and convicted and encouraged by this body of believers. And I'm thankful for stories like Corey's and many others that we could tell of people who found us online or were invited by a neighbor or a family member or a co worker and came into this place and found belonging, found friendship, found Jesus and new life. Father, we're grateful for that and we recognize that while your spirit is the fuel that our church runs on, the resources that you bless us with are a part of the toolbox that you've given us to accomplish ministry. And so God, I ask that you would help all of us guided by your spirit, Father, certainly not by me, but by your spirit in assessing all that you've provided to us and asking some really intentional soul searching questions about the degree of our generosity in light of the extent of yours. So God, we thank you for all that we're doing in ministry.

We're grateful for all the great things that are happening that we can celebrate every time we're together. But God, we recognize that the work isn't done, that the need is greater than the resources. And the opportunities, Father, that we have yet to even begin to tap are still out there in front of us. And so Father, we pray that you would help us as a congregation to consistently challenge and stretch ourselves in trust in your provision and in generosity with what you place in our hands. Father, we love you and we thank you for this time together.

In Jesus name, amen. It's always good to be with you friends. And every time we gather we want to extend an opportunity for you to take a next step, whatever that might look like. That might be baptism like we celebrated with deb at the 9:30 service. If that's the case, we'd love to talk with you.

We have a few friends. Our next step team are going to go ahead and make their way to the front here. And we just want you to know that whatever that next step looks like, even if you're sensing God prompting you to do something and you don't know for sure what it is, we'd love to help you discern that and take that step. So at any time you can text the word next to 317-707-9997. That's helpful to our friends who are online.

But if you're in a hurry this morning, you can always do that yourselves. But we also want you to know that every Sunday after every service, there are going to be several of us down here on the floor in front of the stage. And we would love to meet you, pray with you, talk with you, answer questions, whatever God is laying on your heart. We'd love to be a part of the process of helping you to discern that so that you can take those next steps.