Core Training

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon
Sunday, November 13, 2011

[Video] “Pa? Here’s Mr. Wilson, the man that called you about borrowing money.” “Well, howdy there, Mr. Wilson. Pleasure to meet ya. Sit down a spell.” “Well, thank you. Thank you, sir.” “Have a smoke?” “Yes, thank you.” “Maybe Mr. Wilson would like a nice cold pitcher of spring water or some coffee or tea or something.” “Would you, Mr. Wilson?” “No, no thanks, young lady.” “You look all tuckered out.” “Yes, I am. I’ve been going from bank to bank trying to borrow some money.” “Didn’t they have none?” “None that they wanted to loan me. You see, Mr. Clampett, my chicken ranch is mortgaged to the hilt. I have no credit, no collateral. I need money to buy feed.” “We got a vault full of it. How much money you need?” “Are you kidding me?” “Elly Mae, take him out to the vault and show him the money.” “No, no. Would you really lend me the money?” “Well, that’s what banks is fer, ain’t it?” “Well, yes. I’m poor. I have no security.” “Ain’t no shame being poor, as long as you’re honest.” “How do you know I’m honest?” “Well, if you wasn’t, you’d be tellin’ me about how much you got instead of how much you ain’t got.” “Mr. Clampett, I’ve never met a banker like you before.” “Oh shucks, Mr. Drysdale can outbank me any day of the week.” “He must be a wonderful man.” “You bet he is, best banker around here. Now how much money would you like to have?” “Well, sir, I really need $5,000 but I can squeeze by on 3 or 4.” “Elly Mae, go fetch this man $5,000.” “Sure, Pa.” “Bring him a cup of that cider that Granny sent down to ward off sick benefits. Doggone, if he don’t look like he’s coming down with it.”

I could get by with a whole lot less, too. If I’m honest with myself, I could get by with a lot less than what God has given to me and how generous He’s been with all of my material possessions and the wealth that He’s bestowed upon me. I could get by with a lot less. I’m not talking even about a vow of poverty here, eating bread and water, bunking out in a tent every night. No, no, no, no. I’m saying I could do without a lot of the things I have and probably never even feel it, never even notice it.

Honestly, do I need to pause live TV? Do I need to cruise through 300-some off channels of nothing when I surf? I’m positive that I can get by with an older vehicle, a smaller house and less clothes. I don’t need my I-pod, my Iphone and my I-pad. Well, perhaps I go too far with this.

My point is, all of us have more than we need but my point is not to make you feel guilty about that. Actually, it’s the exact opposite of that. Instead, I want you to gain a new appreciation for the blessings that God has laid upon you but to put those possessions and that wealth in the proper place in your lives.

We’re in the second week of the series of messages that we’re calling Total Body Stewardship. We ripped it off the whole idea of Total Body Workout. That’s the craze that’s going around. You go six days a week. You work every muscle in your body, even some that you don’t have. You have nutrition so you can be fit and trim and strong. There are many different programs to do that, but they all have one thing in common. They’re all going to stress working on your core. That’s those core muscles that you have, because it seems if you can tone up the core muscles, then everything else kind of falls in place. But if you don’t take the time to tone up the core, then you’re never really going to be completely, totally fit.

This morning, we want to zero in on the core. As we’re talking about stewardship, that is, the managing of all the things God has given to us, I believe there is a core to biblical stewardship and the core to biblical stewardship, if you really want to get at it, is the attitude of our hearts, the attitude of our hearts towards our wealth and towards our possessions because there is nothing more core than the heart of a person.

Jesus said this, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Now when Scripture talks about the heart, it’s not talking about the organ that pumps the blood through the body. It’s talking about much more than that. In fact, it’s talking much more than just the center of your emotional being. When Scripture talks about the heart, it’s talking about the essence of who you are. What is it that makes you tick? What shapes your world? What shapes the way you think, your attitudes, your actions? It all comes from who you are deep inside, your essence, your heart.

So Jesus says this, “Where your treasure is,” that is, what is it you value the most, what is it that you trust the most, “that’s where your heart is.” That’s where the core of your being is. Jesus quickly follows it up by saying, “You can’t serve two masters.” You can’t serve both God and money. Jesus knows that the number one contender for your heart is your money or possessions. The number one contender for us to put our trust, to have a sense of security to look to, to have the number one spot in our lives is money and possessions. It always has been for all of mankind. That’s why Scripture talks about money and wealth and possessions more than any other topic. I know you know that, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Jesus talks about money and possessions more than any other topic because it’s at the core of who we are and it’s at the core of the number one thing that could tempt us away from God. It’s not that money and possessions are evil in and of themselves, but they have a threat to us. And so God wants us to put those in their proper place in our lives.

One of the ways in which He does that is God lays upon us these blessings and then He says, “Now I want you to give a portion of it back to me.” There’s a point to that. There’s a purpose for that. There’s a reason why God says, “Give a portion of what I’ve given to you back to me.” God wants us to grow through that. He does that for our own good. When we give a portion of what we have back to God, it’s an acknowledgement of ownership. This is where it all has to begin. It’s an acknowledgement that everything I have and who I am really belong to God. God is the Creator of the earth and the universe and everything in it. God is the Creator of me. Therefore, everything can be traced back to God. He is the true owner, but it’s easy to forget, isn’t it?

It’s easy to lose track of who the rightful owner is. I equate it to your home. Do you remember when you bought your first house? I want to trace you all the way back to there. Remember, you jumped through all the hoops to finally get to that moment where you’re going to close on the house and you’re meeting with the banker and you sign your name about a thousand times. There are about a million pages and there are a kazillion numbers on the page. At least for me, when I sat down for the closing of my first house, I walked away from there knowing one thing for sure. That house wasn’t mine. That house belonged to the bank. That was abundantly clear that the house belonged to the bank, and it wouldn’t belong to me for many, many, many years and lots and lots of payments before I could ever say that was my house. But the further away you get from the closing, the more you forget.

So if you were to ask me today, “So, Ron, where do you live?” “Oh, well my house is right north up in Johnston.” I don’t say to you, “Well, the house that the bank owns is right up in Johnston and I live in it. They let me do that. In fact, they want me to take care of it. They want me to make improvements to it.” See, we forget. It’s even easier to forget that all we have really belongs to God.

A great example is from the Old Testament, in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. By the time we get to the book of Deuteronomy, the people of Israel had been in captivity for 400 years in Egypt. God has led them out of captivity. They’ve gone through 40 years in the wilderness and now they’re coming in to the Promise Land. I guarantee you that every person who enters into the Promise Land knew this was a gift from God. After all, God provided for their food both morning and night. He led them to the desert. They knew from the miraculous battles they went through that only God could have delivered this land to them. It was beyond a shadow of a doubt this was a gift from God and yet, God knows what’s going to happen because He says this to them. He says, “When you’ve eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord but be careful. Be careful that you don’t forget the Lord. Otherwise, you’re going to settle down in the land. You’re going to build a nice two-story out in the burbs. You’re going to have a vacation home down by the Red Sea. You’re going to build yourself up a nice little business. You’re going to pass that down to your kids. And then pretty soon, you’re going to forget about me. Then your heart will become proud and you’ll forget the Lord your God.” You’ll forget all that He did for you.

He follows that up by saying, “And you may say to yourself, it’s by my power and the strength of my hands that I’ve produced the wealth for me.” “I’ve worked hard for this. I put in long hours a week. I made the sacrifices to get through college. I made the sacrifices to get through grad school.” You started at the bottom and you worked your way up to the top. You did the dirty jobs and then worked yourself up into the better jobs. You put in the 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 hours a week. It’s by your hard work that the bank account says what it is. “It’s by my hands, by my strength that I’ve done this.”

But then God says this, “But remember the Lord your God, for it was He who gives you the ability to produce wealth.” He gives you the ability. I have no doubt that you’ve worked hard. I have no doubt that you’ve put in long hours. Believe it or not, I work hard, too, and I put in long hours. But I couldn’t do what I do if God had not gifted me. If God had not given me the privilege of ministering at Gloria Dei, if God hadn’t given me the gifts and the skills to be a pastor at Gloria Dei, I couldn’t do it. My very existence depends upon Him. Everything that I have, everything that I own can be traced back to God.

Our offerings are an acknowledgement that God is the owner. Our offerings keep us from taking for granted the things that God has given to us. When we give our offerings, we’re not giving a gift to God. God has gifted us and in response and in acknowledgement, we offer a portion of it back to Him. And I believe part of the point, part of the purpose of that is to remind us who the true owner is and to remind us of the generosity of God and what He has bestowed upon us.

So to get personal and let me do that, twice a month, I have a wakeup call. My salary gets deposited in my bank account on the 1st and the 15th. On the 1st and the 15th, when I sit down to pay my bills and I look online at my bank account, there are two transactions that I always see. The very first transaction is the deposit of my salary and nine times out of ten, the second transaction is the deduction that goes to the offering to Gloria Dei. They are usually back to back. Salary goes in, offering goes out. Twice a month, I’m reminded, “This isn’t mine. This is God’s.” And I give it back to Him in acknowledgement of that ownership.

That’s what it is for you, whether it’s every week, whether it’s every month, whether it’s every quarter, whatever it is, when we offer back to God, it’s an acknowledgement of His ownership. This is core training. This is keeping our hearts with the right focus.

And as much as my heart needs the right focus, my heart also needs the right attitude. And I believe that our offerings back to God, the reason that He asked us to do that is because it develops an attitude of trust, an attitude of trust in Him and Him alone. If you look back at Matthew 6, we’re right in the middle of Jesus’ sermon that He gave on the Mount and He’s talking about many subjects, many topics. I would boil this one down to this question, “Who do you trust?” That’s really what He’s asking in this section. He says, “Who do you trust?” And He says it this way, “No one can serve two masters. Either you’ll hate the one and love the other or you’ll be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Now we stopped there. And in our bibles, we cut that off and we say, “Ah, new topic.” But the very next verse starts with this word, “Therefore.” Well, that’s referring back to what He just said. This is His message that He’s preaching. I don’t think He stopped and said, “Okay, now it’s time to go on to the next point.”

He says, “You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life. Do not worry about what you’ll eat or what you drink, about what your body will wear.” In other words, He’s saying, “If you trust the right person, if you’re serving God and God alone, you don’t have to worry. You don’t have to be stressed out.” God will take care of your needs.

But let’s be honest, this is a challenge. It’s a challenge for me. This is tough stuff, to say, “I’m going to put my trust in God and God only.” You know what? I can see my bank account. I can see what I’m putting away for retirement. Those are cold, hard numbers. We live in a world that survives and operates on cash, the exchange of goods. When I write out the check for the mortgage, I better have cash to back it up. When I go to the grocery store and I swipe the card, there better be cash to back it up. So it is tempting and it is easy for us to say, “If I have enough cash, if I’m putting enough for retirement, then I’ll be okay, then I can feel secure.”

There are three problems and issues that I see with trusting money. I’m certain there are more. The three that I see are this: It can be gone in an instant. Everything you have can be gone in an instant. I pray not, but you could go home and your home could have burned down. The economy could really dip and, all of a sudden, the retirement is gone. If you walk in tomorrow morning and the job has evaporated, no more cash flow in. You could be robbed and there are any number of ways that our possessions, our wealth could be gone, snap, just like that.

The second thing is there’s never enough. I don’t care who you talk to, I don’t care how much money they have, there’s never, ever enough. There could always be more. For the spender, there’s always something else to buy. There’s something newer. There’s something better. There’s something shinier that we could get. For the saver, you can never have enough invested. You can never be diversified enough. There’s never enough.

And finally, it’s self-defeating. Wealth and possessions are self-defeating. The more you have, the more you have to lose, the more you have to worry about. If somebody said to me in college, “Ron, you’re going to be wiped out. Everything’s going to be gone,” I think I’d have come out ahead in that deal. “Now? Oh. There’s a home. There’s a vehicle. There’s on and on and on and on.” The more you have, the more you have to lose. That doesn’t sound like security to me.

Trust the one who has more than enough. Trust the one who has more than enough. Jesus goes on talking about not to worry and all the things that we could put our trust in and He says this, “The pagans run after all these things. The unbelievers, they run after all the possessions, put their security in their investments.” He says, “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” It’s like a simple statement of fact, isn’t it? Kind of like Jesus says, “Get real. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Your Father knows that you need to eat. He knows that you need clothes. He knows that you need shelter. It’s not like He’s ignorant of those things.”

Put your trust in the one who has more than enough. If our Father knows that we need them, if you add to that the Father in heaven was willing to ask His Son to leave heaven and to become part of creation, if the Father was willing to turn His back on His Son as He hung upon the cross, if He was willing to take my guilt and shame and the punishment for my sin and lay it upon His Son and to stand by and do nothing as His Son suffered the punishment for me, if He is willing to do all of that so He can welcome me and you into an eternity of heaven with Him, I kind of think He’s going to take care of things here on earth, too.

I know you can go through rough times. I’ve gone through rough times in my life, maybe not nearly what you’ve gone through and I don’t want to take away from that, but I’m saying when we give our offerings back to God, we’re saying, “God, I trust you. I trust you enough that I’m going to give a portion of what I have and I’m going to give it back to you.” Because that’s a statement that’s developing an attitude of trust. I know it’s a struggle and I know it’s hard to do, but I believe that when we do that, we’re opening up the door for God to prove Himself faithful, for God to prove Himself trustworthy.

Now I understand, there may be times you lose jobs, things happen, that you pull back from what you give to God. I’m going to acknowledge that. I don’t want anybody to go bankrupt because they’re offering back to God. What I’m saying, though, are those times when it’s gets challenging, it is very, very tempting to say, “Um, I think I’ll hold back.” I’ve been tempted more than occasion. I’ve had unexpected things come up in my life, just like you, things that I never saw coming, expenses that I never anticipated. Wow, it would have been easy to say, “Oh, maybe just pull back a little bit on that.”

But every time that I’ve made the decision to say, “No, I’m not going to pull back,” God has opened up the doors and He has amazed me in unique and just almost miraculous ways in which He has taken care of me. I believe with our offerings, one of the reasons He says we should do that is it develops this attitude of trust as we step out and say, “Okay, I take it at your word. I believe you.” It’s the attitude of our hearts.

Finally, I believe that in our offerings back to God, it’s an investment in the future and this one, for me personally, probably is the most important. It’s an investment in the future. Now when we think investment, we think financial. God thinks spiritual. We think temporal. He thinks eternal. But the problem is anything financial, anything that’s earthly doesn’t last. Anything in this world, no matter how much we might try, no matter how much we might earn, it isn’t going to last. So Jesus says this, “Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth. Moth and rust destroy, thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” What does He mean treasures in heaven?

Treasures in heaven are making an investment in eternity. When we give our offerings back to God, God uses them in the local church to advance His kingdom. It’s what I believe. I believe that as we give our offerings back to God, God takes them in through His local church and then He uses that to advance His kingdom. Because the fact is, this church and every other church lives in this society, this culture which operates on the exchange of goods. The light bill has to be paid. Salaries have to be issued. Buildings need to be cleaned. They need to be maintained. Those are just the realities of life. And I believe that one of the ways in which God then uses our offerings is He uses them to advance that kingdom.

Specifically, for us here at Gloria Dei, our missions, the things we are going after is we want to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to people for the first time and for a lifetime. We want to live that out. We want to make that a reality. Those who don’t know Jesus Christ, we want to tell them about Jesus. Those who do, we want them to grow and mature in their faith. It’s about an investment in the future.

It’s about a couple of months ago, in this sanctuary when three generations were baptized, grandma down to granddaughter and God placed His mark on each one of them and called them His child.

It’s about the story I heard just from last week. A junior high student invited a friend to church and as they sat in class, the friend leaned over and says, “So what exactly did this Jesus guy do?” And we got to tell him and we got to share it with his family.

It’s about last weekend at the confirmation retreat, I was with the kids on Friday night. We’re covering the Lord’s Prayer and just talking about prayer in general. I was wrapping up my section and it was time to introduce a prayer time for them. And there were four prayer stations around the room they could go to. One, they could write on the wall their prayer request. Another one, they could put it on post-its. One, they could just sit quietly and pray. And I’ll tell you, I looked at that and I said, “This is not good. This is a room full of junior high kids at 7:00 on a Friday night. This should be serious and this is going to turn silly.” Shame on me. Shame on me for not having the confidence in our kids. I stood in amazement as I watched forty-some young people huddle together in various places around the room earnestly praying to God. And I baptized some of those kids. Do you know the privilege of watching the faith from baptism grow and mature to a young person reaching out to their Father in heaven? That’s an investment in eternity.

It’s about touching lives and changing lives with the gospel, and God uses our offerings to advance that kingdom. I believe so strongly about giving back to God and I have experienced the joy so much in my life. You know that I preach on it every year unashamedly because I’m that convinced that this is a core teaching of Scripture. And every year I challenge you to make a commitment, to make a pledge to God, to decide in advance to say, “God, I’m looking at all of my blessings and I’m going to give this portion back to you.” Some of you have been incredibly generous with that, many of you unbelievably consistent as you’ve given back to God. But I need to be candid, some of you have not stepped out yet. You have not experienced that joy and I don’t know what’s holding you back. I’m asking you this year to earnestly pray about it.

In fact, I’m asking all of us to earnestly pray about it because I, for one, think that we have an incredible future ahead of us. I believe that God is opening up many, many doors for our ministry to advance, many more opportunities for us to hear more stories about people coming to faith and growing in their faith, but it will take every single one of us, every member of Gloria Dei to be committed to that, committed to that with their time and committed to that with their money to make it happen. So I’m asking that you would earnestly pray and seek God out so that God can use this as a core training, so as you give your offerings back to God joyfully, you acknowledge Him as the owner. You look at the blessings you have. You allow Him to develop this attitude of trust in your heart. You’re relying upon Him. And you invest in eternity as we come together as the people of God, seeking to bring the good news of Jesus to people for the first time and for a lifetime. Amen.