Consider Your Ways: Money, God, and Priorites

Thank you Frank for reading the Scripture so well, and thank you Joel for sharing with us this morning how God has provided for you and your family over the years. If anyone else would like to share a testimony or a story like that, I would love to give you the chance to do it. Let me know.

The title of the message today is “Consider your ways: money, God, and priorities.”

This is kick off to our Be The Church summer theme. Someone give me last summer’s theme. What was last summer’s theme? All Hands On Deck.

[BE THE CHURCH SLIDE]

This summer’s theme is Be The Church: Worship, Grow, Love, Serve, the four words on the logo.

This will be the third sermon on giving this month. There will be one or two more after today.

And if anyone here this morning is wondering why I’m giving another sermon on giving, here’s your reason. Actually here’s four, and these are the same ones I gave you on the first Sunday I preached on giving.

Why a sermon on giving?

We all have (some) money

God’s word has something to say about our money

It’s my job to teach you that and help you apply it

And we are in a position where we need faithful giving

I love you guys!

Now, take your Bibles and let’s get into Haggai 1:1-15 together.

Will you notice with me four lessons we can draw on giving?

#1: We are naturally inclined to spend all of our money on ourselves

We are naturally inclined to spend most or all of our money on ourselves. So were the Israelites.

Haggai 1:1 ESV

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

Now look with me at verse 2: “Thus says the Lord of hosts” - standard prophetic introduction — this is a direct message for Israel from the prophet, the man who speaks for God. And this is what that message says. It is an accusation: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord” (Hag. 1:2 ESV).

“It’s just not the right time. We’ll get to it the temple, eventually. One day. But the economy is so bad. Who knows what the Persians will do to the temple anyway since they’re occupying us. Let’s just be good stewards of our money, right? Now is not the time to give to repair and rebuild the temple.” That is the Israelites’ assessment of the financial picture. Not now. “The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”

Well, the Lord has a response to that assessment. It’s in verses 3-4: “Thus says the Lord of hosts” — there’s that standard prophetic formula again, introducing a direct word from God to the people through the prophet — “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” There’s some word play there with the word “house.” It’s not time to rebuild my house, the Lord says, but from the looks of things you think it is the time enhance your own houses, while my house lies in ruins.”

Now let me stop right here. Many of us have nice homes. It’s okay to have nice homes. It’s okay to have paneling in your homes. Back then paneling was a luxury, just like they thought paneling was a luxury in the 1970s. Is anybody thankful paneling is out of style today?

So what made paneling so bad? Do you want to know where you could find paneling? Two places. The first? King’s palaces, like king Solomon’s. The second? The temple. The temple had paneled walls. 1 Kings 6:9

1 Kings 6:9 ESV

So he built the house and finished it, and he made the ceiling of the house of beams and planks of cedar.

In other words, the Israelites are fixing up their houses with the luxurious items that the temple of the Lord should have had, while the temple of the Lord is torn down and in ruins. [Wolff, p42]. I came across a quote last week on this:

The Message of Ezra and Haggai: Building for God 1. Appeal to Priorities (1:3–4)

‘The conflict of expenditure on luxury homes and worthy support of God’s work is still with us’.

That’s tough isn’t it? I didn’t write it. I just said it. Which is just as bad I guess. The point is, let’s not be too quick to criticize Israel, okay? We too are naturally prone to spend our money on ourselves.

Like the guy who called his pastor and said, “Pastor, I’m going gambling. Now I know you’re going to tell me I shouldn’t gamble, so here’s what I’m going to do. I’m a generous person. If I win, I’ll give all of the money I win to the church.

Well he goes and gambles. And all this time he’s really sick, right? This is kind of a last hurrah before he kicks the bucket.

Surprisingly, he wins a huge sum of money. Surprisingly, he also gets better.

“I’m glad to see you’re better,” the pastor said to him. “And I’m so thankful for your generous gift.” The guy lowered his eyes and got nervous. It becomes clear instantly to the pastor that he has a change of heart. He clears his throat and says, “Now, you know, pastor, how sick I was. I was too sick to comprehend what I was saying.” [Evans p115]

How we rationalize the use of our money so we can spend it on ourselves. And often when we do give, it’s for the wrong reason.

Some of you know that Shannon and I had an internship at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. It’s actually where we met. 18 girls and just two guys, so…her chances were pretty good.

In all seriousness, when you walk into the Kennedy Center (anybody ever been there), you can go in through two major halls. There’s the hall of nations and the hall of states. Now the walls in both of these halls, were marble and they extended from the red carpet on the floor up probably 40 or 50 feet. What was on these walls? Well national flags and state flags. But there were also names engraven in the walls. Guess who the names were? Donors. The more you gave, the more prominent your name.

Now of course not everyone gives consciously for the recognition. But sometimes there is a little bit of self-interest. “I’m a good, faithful church member. I’m better than those who don’t give.” Nope. That’s why Jesus says when we give not to let our right hand know what our left hand is doing, to let it be between us and God alone.

We have many faithful givers. You who give faithfully? The leadership of the church thanks you. Many know this but maybe some don’t, and in a time when prosperity preaching is prevalent, we have to remind people that, I actually don’t like preaching on giving at all, and I personally don’t know any pastors who do. But God calls us to do what is right and what is faithful, not what we feel like.

[WATCH TONE}

Now let me address those of you who for whatever reason do not give. You will not hear an ounce of shame or condemnation from me for not giving — and you better not hear it from anybody else. God does not motivate us with shame and guilt; God motivates us by grace. It is His kindness and love that lead us to repentance and obedience, not His anger and wrath. So I won’t do that.

But do you know what I will do?

I will remind you that Christians are givers, because God has given us Himself.

I will remind that you all that we have belongs to God; we are not owners of it, we are stewards, and a steward is responsible to manage the money given to him the way the master wants him to.

I will remind you that a time is coming when most of our faithful givers will not be here. And that can happen much sooner than we realize. We need to prepare now for that reality.

My challenge to you who do not give at all is this: give something every Sunday. Start simple. Give $25 a month for three months. Then increase it to $50 for three months. Then $75 for three months. Then see what happens.

We are naturally inclined to spend all or most of our money on ourselves. But, spending all of our money on ourselves is financially counterproductive.

#2: Spending all of our money on ourselves is financially counterproductive

Where do I get that in the text? Look with me at the end of verse 5 and verse 6: “Consider your ways.” The Lord says to them, “Consider your ways”. The Hebrew literally says “focus your heart on your ways”. Consider your ways. What does that mean?

“And now, consider your ways!”

Look critically at your life

Consider your daily routine

What habits or patterns do you see?

“And now, he says, consider your ways”. — meaning look at your life, meaning look critically at your life. Think about a typical day, a typical week, a typical month. What are your habits? And what patterns do you see as a result?”

You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

The Lord graciously shows them a pattern, a cycle. In verse 6: “You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes” (ESV).

You’ve heard of the law of diminishing returns? People who work in manufacturing know this. There’s a point at which if you increase one unit of production and keep all the others the same, eventually you’ll start producing less than you did before. Well, verse 6 is the law diminishing returns applied to working and spending.

A few years ago I bought a Honda Accord. It was older, like a 2002 model. But Hondas are generally good cars. So even though it had high mileage, I figured I could get a few years out of it. But literally the very next day after I bought it, I walk out to the garage, get in it, turn the key, and — nothing.

It was a bad alternator and a bad battery, at the same time. After that it was just constant trouble. I replaced two blown head gaskets within six months. I replaced the starter. I replaced the thermostat. I don’t know even know what else I had to do to it, but the point is that those repairs cost money we weren’t planning to spend. And so the thing happened that I’m sure happens to many of you: our expenses kept rising to meet the level of our income. We’d save some money and, boom — blown head gasket. Shannon got a higher paying job and then the next head gasket goes out.

I think of that whenever I read verse 6 about earning wages to put them into a bag with holes. The picture is someone who’s earning money and then losing it as soon as he puts it away. I’m not sure there is anything in this fallen world that is more demoralizing than that.

And here’s the thing, church: it’s not always because were not giving to the our local church, or not giving generously... But sometimes it could be. Whether it is the case with you or not is something that you’ll have to decide between you and the Lord. It was the case here with the Israelites. Is it the case with you? I can’t answer that for you. That will have to involve prayer on your part, seeking counsel from others, seeking the Lord, etc. But He will show you.

Spending most or all of our money on ourselves is counterproductive.

Look with me at our next point:

#3: Spending all our money on ourselves puts us at odds with our Creator and the creation

Look at verse 9: “You looked for much” —meaning the harvest: you sowed much, you looked for much, and then it continues: “you looked for much, and behold, it came to little.”

Now look at this startling assertion that God the Creator makes: “And when you brought it home, I blew it away.” Behind the events that take place in nature, every day, all around us, stands the Creator who is rules and reigns over even the dew and the produce of the ground. “I have called for a drought”, the Lord says in verse 11 — “I, and not another” - “I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors” (Hag 1:11 ESV).

Again, not every instance of drought or famine are a result of our sin. But it was in this case because the Lord tells Israel the reason in verse 9: “Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house”.

Is God being cruel? Is this Him being merciless and uncaring? No. This is His love. It’s loving because of the intent behind and the effect achieved by it. Sometimes to get my kids’ attention I have to turn the TV off and get like right up in front of them. Is that a loving thing to do? Is it not a loving thing for God to do what He has to do get our attention? And often the only way to shout at us effectively, the only way to gain our distracted attention is to temporarily let everything come crashing down. Then we remember: Oh, yeah. He is God. I’m not. I need to repent. I need to come back to Him.” Not giving faithfully is a hindrance to our relationship with God.

But you say, “Pastor Dustin, what does how much I give or how much I tithe - what in the world does that have to do with coming home to God? Is there really a relationship between my wallet and my relationship with God? Do I really need to repent for spending my own money on myself?

And why was the temple so important? Why couldn’t they give to some other charity?

Those questions are really the same and here’s why. The temple — you just can’t overestimate the significance of the temple for Israel. God is a God who reveals Himself. God revealed Himself to Abraham in the burning bush. He called Abraham to represent Him and lead His people out of Egypt. He brought them into the wilderness and revealed Himself to them. He revealed himself in the parting of the Red Sea, he revealed Himself to them in the miraculous provision in the wilderness, he revealed Himself to them in the giving of His law.

But there was no revelation of God quite like the revelation of Himself that He gave them in the tabernacle. In the tabernacle, God — in some mysterious way — the God who is everywhere at all times chose to position Himself where human beings could access Him, above the ark of the covenant in a chamber called the holy of holies. He located Himself there, without ceasing to still be the God who is everywhere at all times.

And the high priest would go in and worship Him and bring an offering and sacrifice it for people’s sins, and God would forgive. Then the temple was built in Jerusalem once the Israelites settled there. And the temple became the permanent version of the tabernacle. God always wanted to dwell among His people Israel just as now He dwells with us. The temple was the physical place where the spiritual God dwelt with His people.

The temple and God were not one and the same thing, but here’s the point of all of this: the association between temple and God was so close that for the Israelites to not rebuild the temple was practically for them to reject God. ‘We’re good. We have enough on our own. We don’t need you. We don’t want you.”

So for the Israelites to give to the rebuilding of the temple was for them to draw near to God that He might draw near to Him. Giving financially was a huge way that the Israelites expressed that they were in covenant relationship with God.

And church, it’s no different today. Listen to this: We don’t owe God ten percent. We owe God everything. All that we are — no less does He ask of us. And because our money is so close to our hearts, because the dollar sign is what we cherish and treasure, He asks we dedicate it all to Him by giving him a portion of it, so that He can be first in our lives.

Last point: making real changes to our spending habits invites God’s presence and strength.

#4: Making real changes to our spending habits invites God’s presence and strength

You know those pledge drives that the Christian radio stations have every few months? Trying to raise their money for the coming year? They have to, right? They don’t accept commercial advertising like other stations. Like our church, they have to have support or they shut the doors and turn off the lights.

I have a confession to make: I don’t listen to the pledge drives. Anyone in here listen to the pledge drives? I don’t either. I come back to them when it’s over. Pr

Don’t do that here. Don’t flip the channel. Don’t tune out when we start talking about giving and tune back in when we’re on to something more interesting. Why? This church is your family.

Why do I say that? To get you to track with me for just a few more minutes.

Notice with me the changes they made and notice the sequence of changes we should make. This applies to giving and every other aspect of your life and mine.

Our part (verse 12):

We listen and obey the word of God

We fear the Lord

First, we listen and obey the word of God. Look at verse 12: Hag 1:12 “Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him.” How did they obey? We’re told later they got to work on the temple.

When God speaks — whether through a sermon, through your reading of His word, through a friend giving you a timely encouragement or warning — God speaks, we respond — always. We respond either with obedience or disobedience. Each choice we make, whether to obey or disobey, is always changing us into something else. We never stay the same. We are becoming more obedient to God or less. God speaks, we obey.

Second, we fear the Lord. That’s the last part of verse 12: “And the people feared the Lord.” There’s really not much difference between obeying the Lord and fearing the Lord. If my son has a healthy fear of me — by which I mean a healthy reverence for me as his father and for my authority over him — if he has that, he will listen to what I say and he will obey. And for the most part he does. To fear the Lord is to listen and obey.

God’s part (verses 13-14):

God’s gives us His presence (“I am with you”)

God gives us strength

When we listen and respond, God gives us His presence. “I am with you.” On my desk I have a little wooden block with those words written on it. On my phone every morning I have a reminder that pops up, every morning and every night. It says, “Jesus is in the mess with you and he will face it with you.”

I don’t know why, but that truth has become precious to me over the last couple of years. God is with me. Makes sense — He is Emmanuel, “God with us.” It’s in His name to be with us. It’s in His nature to be with us. He took on a human body and a human nature to be with us. And He will be with us and we with him for eternity.

The Lord is with you, church. On your good days and bad days. On days you’ve sinned more times than you can count and on relatively holy days. On days you’ve shouted at your kids and ignored your spouse. When your sick and when you’re well. Jesus is with you. His presence is with you. He is with you as your Lord and Savior, yes, but He is also and maybe especially with you as your Friend.

Do you practice His presence? You’re driving in your car — imagine him with you. Working at your desk — imagine he’s with you. Imagine his friendly presence with you. Imagine his accepting presence with you. Imagine him there delighting in you and who you are and who He is making you to be. He wants you to grow and He is working to get you there, but in the meantime He accepts you right where you are and loves you.

But His strength — that’s available to you too.

Look at verses 14-15: “And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people.” He stirred up their spirits. I take that to mean that He motivated them and enabled them. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.”

And when we hear God’s word and obey — in this case, when the Israelites went to work on the temple to rebuild it, they opened themselves to God’s presence and His strength.

To apply this to us: when we step out in faith and make changes to our spending habits in order to give greater priority to your local church, you can count on God’s presence with you. You can count on His enablement, His strength. you can count on His motivation. You might have to take the first couple of steps on your own, in faith, but He will always meet you if you step out in faith.

“Pastor, why are you making such a big deal about this? Why don’t you trust God to provide?”

There’s sometimes this mistaken idea about trust. If we trust God, the idea goes, we should demonstrate that trust by doing nothing, expecting God to do it all.

I think that’s wrong. I think God does do it all, but He uses our faithful and wise efforts to accomplish it.

If we trust God, why “worry” about giving?

Concern and worry are not different

Concern is healthy and wise; worry is sin

God is faithful and will provide (Phil 4:19)

We are called to be wise planners (Luke 16:1-9)

We are naturally inclined to spend all our money on ourselves. Spending all our money on ourselves is financially counterproductive. Spending all our money on ourselves puts us at odds with the Creator and the creation. But making real changers to our spending habits — or any aspect of our lives — invites His presence and strength.

Conclusion and call for response

So how much should you give? I can’t answer that. That’s between you and your spouse and the Lord. But here are some guidelines, for what they’re worth.

Tithing means giving 10% of your income to your church

Tithing is more of an OT practice than a NT one

But tithing is a good place to start

Because the NT is more about generous giving.

For some people, generous giving will be 10%.

For a few of us, it might be less.

For many of us, it’ll be more.

For all of us, our God does not accept us because we give.

If you’ve not been giving up until this point, He does not love you any less than those who do. He does not love us more when we give or love us less when we don’t. He doesn’t show more love to those who give more and less to those who give less. God is a God of grace, and grace is never earned, always undeserved.

But it is that same grace, that same unconditional acceptance, that same love that motivates us to give. Remember this: 2Cor. 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

Our musicians will come and lead us in song. If the Lord has shown you something this morning you need to deal with Him on, do that now. It may be related to giving; it may not. I’m preaching on giving but I know that all of other hard things in life don’t take a break for me to teach on giving. So whatever your need is today, we are here for you. If you need to stay seated and pray while the rest of us stand and sing, you do that. If you want to pray with me I’m happy to do it. These steps are open if you want to kneel and pray.