The story is told of a shipwrecked sailor
who landed on a South Sea island, one
of many stories of that sort.
And he was seized by the natives and
they hoisted this man to their shoulders and
carried him to the village and put him
on a rude throne and said he was
going to be king for a year.
And then he discovered that they did that
every year.
That they chose a man, put him on
a throne, and he was king for a
year.
But after he had been king for a
little while, he began to wonder what happened
to the other kings after the year was
up.
Because there didn't seem to be any of
them left on the island.
And then he discovered that after the year
was up, they took the king and they
put him on a desert island and there
he was left to starve to death.
So this man was wise and he said,
well, I'm going to be king for a
year.
So he hired people to go out to
that desert and fertilize it and build irrigation
systems and build buildings and put trees there
and for the whole year they went there
and they refurbished that or they furnished that
island with every imaginable thing that a person
could need.
And so at the end of the year,
when he was banished to the island, he
didn't starve to death like the others did.
Now, we are all kings for a little
while on this earth.
And our responsibility is to decide what we're
going to do with the things God has
given us.
We can keep them here and have nothing
on the other side.
Or we can send them on ahead, as
we said this morning, and we will enjoy
them through all eternity.
I'm not sure what all that means, but
that's what the scripture has clearly said to
us.
Jesus said, lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven.
And then he told us how to do
it.
He said, sell that you have and give
alms.
Provide for yourselves bags which wax not old,
a treasure in the heaven that faileth not.
Now, we live in a world where we
have tremendous opportunity to do this with extravagance.
Because we live in a very, very needy
world.
There's no end to the needs to which
we can give, literally.
And we're going to talk about that tonight.
I have four points to my message tonight.
The reality of the world we live in,
the requirement, the resources, and the response.
So first of all, let's talk about the
reality.
Seven billion people live in this world.
Are you aware that one billion of the
seven lives on a dollar a day?
Another two billion of the seven live on
less than two dollars a day.
In other words, nearly half of the world
that we live in struggles to find enough
food and water just to survive another day.
Almost half of the population of the world.
That's an incredible fact.
Some more facts.
29,000 children die every day from starvation
and preventable disease.
That's brought on by contaminated water, infections, malaria,
etc.
29,000 children.
In fact, to help you think a little
bit about that reality, while I'm giving this
message tonight, 1,000 children in the world
will die.
And it's perfectly preventable.
All they needed was food.
All they needed was clean water.
All they needed was proper medical attention for
the curable diseases they had.
But while I'm speaking tonight, 1,000 children
in the world will die of causes that
could have been prevented.
To give you a little bit of an
idea how many people 29,000 people are,
the city of Chambersburg is near us.
It's 20,000 people.
So what we're saying is that all the
people in Chambersburg, in fact, even in this
larger area of Chambersburg, 29,000 people would
be dead by this time tomorrow.
That's how many people we're talking about.
Every year there's a young people's ministry called
Teen Mania that puts on an event to
challenge young people.
And one year they decided to do a
little demonstration to make the reality of the
world we live in just a little more
real to people.
So what they did in every session that
they had, they had this in various parts
of the country, is they brought a goldfish
bowl up.
And the person took the goldfish out of
the bowl and laid him on the podium
and then stepped back and let the audience
watch that goldfish flop and flounder and die.
And in every case before that happened, somebody
couldn't stand it, ran up from the audience,
grabbed the goldfish and put it back into
the bowl.
The problem is you're not there when those
29,000 children die.
They die in obscurity.
They're often in places that the news media
doesn't even reach, and nobody sees them die.
Somebody has said a single death is a
tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.
But tonight I want you to leave this
place with a sense of responsibility for those
many, many people that have just become a
statistic.
The golden rule.
Suppose you were starving and you knew that
some rich teenager could have saved your life
if she hadn't needed that sixth pair of
shoes.
What would you think if you heard that
she was a Christian and you knew what
Christianity taught and you died and you knew
that this person had the means to save
your life and was not caring?
What would you think?
850,000 children go to bed hungry every
night.
How much would it take to prevent this
mind-boggling tragedy in our world?
Well, there are some statistics that people have
figured.
You can go on the internet and get
these for yourself.
$13 billion a year would provide the basic
nutrition for every starving person in the world.
$13 billion a year.
You say that's a lot of money.
Are you aware that American Christians spend $21
billion a year on soft drinks?
If every Christian gave the money they spent
on soft drinks, it would feed every starving
person in our world.
You want to know how much they spend
on Christmas gifts?
$100 billion.
$100 billion would literally feed, educate, cure almost
every problem in our needy world.
That's what we spend on Christmas gifts.
$3 billion a year would save 1.5
million people from blindness that occurs simply because
of a lack of vitamin A.
American Christians spend $5 billion on bottled water.
But the most heart-wrenching part of what's
going on in our world is the injustice
that happens to people that have no choice.
$246 billion children in our world are in
the bonds of child labor.
And let me read you an actual account.
My sister is 10 years old.
Every morning at 7 o'clock, she goes
to the bonded labor man.
And every night at 9, that's 14 hours
later, she comes home.
He treats her badly.
He hits her if he thinks she's working
slowly or if she's talking to the other
children.
He yells at her.
He comes looking for her if she's sick
and cannot go to work.
This is a terrible thing for her.
I don't care about school or playing.
I don't care about any of that.
All I want is to bring my sister
home from the bonded labor man.
For 600 rubies, I can bring her home.
That is our only chance to get her
back, but we do not have 600 rubies,
and we will never have 600 rubies.
And 600 rubies is $14.
All over the third country world, people get
into trouble.
There's a funeral they cannot pay for, or
there's an illness they cannot pay for, or
they just simply don't have the money to
put food on the table.
And so these children are sold to these
bonded labor men.
And they may earn 10 cents a day,
and the interest gets way ahead of the
amount they owe, and they will work for
years to pay off $10, $15, $20 that
was borrowed.
To me, that is heart-wrenching.
In fact, so heart-wrenching, I must do
something about this.
I've been talking about this with my family.
I can't handle the fact that they're children.
What were you doing when you were 7
years old?
What were you doing when you were 10
years old?
Here are our children.
I just can't imagine.
And I want you to think about this.
What I want to do tonight is lay
a burden on your heart.
We live in a country that is totally
unrealistic.
It's the richest country that the world ever
had.
And I see teenagers in my own community
buying designer clothes, buying $160 sneakers, buying soft
drinks, buying fancy cars, buying fancy clothes, buying
20 shoes, buying...
Well, you know what goes on in our
plain communities.
What is the requirement?
What does God think about all of this?
God has repeatedly admonished us and warned us
about our responsibility.
It's a little bit like the whole subject
of economics, and this one is related.
There are dozens of scriptures.
In fact, I want to turn you to
a bunch of them tonight.
I want you to see them for yourself.
Turn to Proverbs 24, verses 11 and 12.
I would like tonight to put such a
burden on your heart that it would forever
cure you of your selfish materialism if you're
involved in it.
I hope there are people here tonight that
have already dealt with it.
But if you haven't, my purpose tonight is
to make you aware of the fact that
your indulgence is somebody else's suffering.
It's not something you can do with impunity.
It costs something for somebody else for you
to be selfish with the resources you have
that they don't.
Proverbs 24, verses 11 and 12 reads this
way.
If thou forbear to deliver them that are
drawn unto death, and I just read you
some accounts, and those that are ready to
be slain, if thou sayest, Behold, we knew
it not.
Now that may have been true years ago
without all the electronic media we have today.
But there is nobody today that can say,
We don't know this is happening.
It's on your cell phone.
It's on your computer.
I mean, it's just there.
If you want to know it, you can
know it.
And it says, Don't you say to the
Lord, We didn't know it.
Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider
it?
And he that keepeth thy soul, doth he
not know it?
And shall he not render to every man
according to his works?
So don't say, I didn't know it.
They were statistics.
I didn't actually see it happening.
Don't say that.
There's not a single person sitting here tonight,
especially after this message, that can leave this
place and say, I don't know it.
I'm going to buy my 20th pair of
shoes.
Or I'm going to buy my dream car.
Or I'm going to build my dream house.
Or I'm going to continue some other indulgence.
When you leave this place tonight, you will
not be able to say, I did not
know it.
Would you turn to Proverbs 28, verse 27.
He that giveth unto the poor shall not
lack.
Now God said that I didn't.
That's a promise.
He that hideth his eyes shall have many
a curse.
Now I don't know what that means, but
I don't want to find it out.
He that gives shall have no lack.
He that hideth his eyes shall be cursed.
Would you turn to Proverbs 21, verse 13.
And these are Old Testament scriptures.
This one says, whoso stoppeth his ears at
the cry of the poor, he also shall
cry himself, but shall not be heard.
Jeremiah 22, Jeremiah 22, verses 16 and 17.
He that judgeth the cause of the poor
and the needy, then it was well with
him.
Was not this to know me, saith the
Lord.
You see what he's saying there.
To judge the cause of the poor and
needy is what it means to know God.
But thine eyes and thine heart are not
but for thy covetousness and for to shed
innocent blood and for oppression and for violence
to do it.
All right, let's turn to Ezekiel 16.
These are strong scriptures.
And I was very convicted.
My life needs some changes in this area
as well.
And I intend to make them.
Ezekiel 16, 49.
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister
Sodom.
Now, if you were to ask most people
what was the iniquity of Sodom, they would
say homosexuality, and it was.
But that's not even mentioned here.
Here was the iniquity of Sodom.
Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness
was in her and in her daughters.
Neither did she strengthen the hand of the
poor and needy.
Now, apparently God puts sexual immorality sort of
in the same category that he puts this
problem.
That makes it pretty serious to me.
All right, apparently ignoring the poor is somewhere
in the same category as sexual sin in
God's eyes.
God takes our attitude toward the poor, as
you can see from these scriptures, very seriously.
He has a special eye on the poor,
not only for their need, but for your
response to their need.
He's watching.
You see, God could deal with all these
inequities.
He could save the whole world without the
missionaries.
God could do all of that.
But he leaves these situations for his children
to accept responsibility and do what needs to
be done.
And he takes it very seriously, and he's
watching.
He's watching my attitude toward the poor, just
as he's watching my attitude toward the lost.
And he takes it very seriously.
I want you to turn to Matthew 25,
the classic scripture now in the New Testament,
and we'll just simply read it.
It doesn't really need a lot of comment.
I'm just going to read the entire passage,
verses 31 through 46.
When the Son of Man shall come in
his glory, and all the holy angels with
him, then shall he sit upon the throne
of his glory.
And before him shall be gathered all nations,
and he shall separate them one from another,
as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the
goats.
And he shall set the sheep on his
right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the king say unto them on
his right hand, Come ye, blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world.
For I was in hunger, and you gave
me meat.
I was thirsty, and you gave me drink.
I was a stranger, and you took me
in.
Naked, and you clothed me.
I was sick, and you visited me.
I was in prison, and you came unto
me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord,
when saw we in hunger, and fed thee?
Or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took
thee in?
Or naked, and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick, or in
prison, and came unto thee?
And the king shall answer and say unto
them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as
ye have done it unto one of the
least of these my brethren, ye have done
it unto me.
Then shall he say also to them on
the left hand, Depart from me ye cursed
into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and
his angels.
For I was in hunger, and you gave
me no meat.
I was thirsty, and you gave me no
drink.
I was a stranger, and you took me
not in.
Naked, and you clothed me not.
Sick, and in prison, and you visited me
not.
Then shall they also answer him saying, Lord,
when saw thee we in hunger, or thirst,
or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or
in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them saying, Verily I
say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it
not unto one of the least of these,
ye did it not unto me.
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment,
but the righteous into life eternal.
Well, most people are gonna say, Well, I
thought the judgment in the end was gonna
be whether a person surrendered in faith and
obedience to Christ.
That is true.
But it's interesting that when the soldiers came
to John the Baptist, or the people came
to John the Baptist, and he preached that
scorching sermon to them, and then they said,
Well, what shall we do?
He said, If you have two coats, give
one away.
If you have more food than what you
need, give the extra away.
What strange advice.
You would have thought he'd have said, Well,
you need to repent.
He was saying you need to repent, but
he said that's fruit for repentance.
If you were asked most people, What is
fruit for repentance?
They'd give you an altogether different picture.
John says, Fruit of repentance is what you
do with your stuff.
Zacchaeus came to Christ, and he said, Behold,
my goods I give to the poor, and
I'm going to give back double, or however
much to the people that I wronged.
And he said all of that.
And you know what Jesus said to him?
Today is salvation.
Come to this house.
Now, if salvation, if genuine repentance is giving
away your extra stuff, and if salvation is
proved by what you do with your extra
stuff, I ask myself, How much salvation are
we experiencing?
And Jesus makes it very clear here that
that's what the judgment is going to be
based on.
The evidence that you have surrendered your life
in faith and obedience to Christ will manifest
itself specifically in this manner.
Or according to John the Baptist, according to
the example of Zacchaeus, and according to what
Jesus says here, there has not been a
genuine repentance, there has not been genuine faith
in Christ, there has not been a surrender
to His Lordship, there has not been an
obedience to His commands, because He makes it
very clear what we're supposed to do.
And the thing that troubles me is the
church for years has failed to really emphasize
this fact of the gospel.
There's a great blind spot in American Christianity.
And it's amazing sometimes what kind of blind
spots Christians can have.
Are you aware in this country, 150 years
ago, Christians defended slavery.
And we look now and we say, how
in the world could they possibly have defended
slavery?
But they did.
You can be that blind.
And tonight I hope, including myself, we can
get rid of the blinders.
There are 143 million orphans in the world.
Because of all the wars and all the
horrible things that happen in the world, there
are 143 orphans.
There's an anti-Christian website that plays the
song, Jesus loves me, this I know.
And while they're playing, this is an anti
-Christian website, while they're playing, Jesus loves me,
this I know, they pass pictures of the
emaciated, starving children in front of you while
you're watching that website.
And the whole time it's playing, Jesus loves
me, this I know.
And then at the end they have a
cross with the circle with the line through
it that means no.
And then they say this, He is your
God.
These are His rules.
And you all go to hell.
Now granted, that's a pretty awful message.
And they don't intend for it to do
any good.
But I'm afraid they understand the gospel better
sometimes than we do.
The widow gave all that she had.
She gave her living.
That literally means she had nothing for the
next day.
And Jesus said, she gave more than all
the rest put together.
That's Jesus' standard.
Not how much you gave, but how much
you have left.
You know, I hear people say, well, this
man's really rich, but he really gives.
Well, according to that parable, I don't think
God measures how much you give.
He measures what it costs you to give.
So that's the requirement.
It's very clear from the scriptures that God
expects us to know what's going on in
our world and to respond to those needs
to the extent of our ability.
And he will hold us accountable.
Let's talk about the resources for a few
moments.
The United States is the richest nation in
the world.
It has one half of the world's wealth
and 5% of the world's population.
Did you hear me?
It has one half of the world's wealth
and 5% of the world's population.
There are 160 million adults in the United
States who claim to be Christians.
Now listen to this.
If each person who claims to be a
Christian would give $15 a month, it would
literally wipe out starvation in the world.
Now, I understand that a lot of those
situations where people are starving are political situations.
You can't even get the stuff to them.
I understand that.
We're only talking in hypothetical figures here.
$15 a month from every professing Christian in
the United States would basically solve the problem
of world hunger.
That's all it would take.
It wouldn't take a lot.
Just that much.
Not only would it do that, it would
also provide safe drinking water for all children
and it would educate every child who's not
in school.
Let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 8.
2 Corinthians chapter 8.
There's only one reason why God has given
us more than what we need.
Did you know that?
There's only one reason why God has given
anybody more than they need.
And it tells it here in this passage.
2 Corinthians chapter 8.
It says, verse 13, For I mean not
that other men be eased and ye burdened,
but by an equality, that now at this
time your abundance may be a supply for
their want, and their abundance may be a
supply for your want, that there may be
equality.
If you have more than enough to meet
your needs, there's only one reason why you've
been given more than enough.
So you can help those who do not
have more than enough.
That's the only reason.
It's not yours to do with what you
want to.
It's not the purpose at all.
In fact, are you aware of the fact
that the great practical theme, I said practical
theme, of the scriptures is equity.
The prophets scored Israel time after time for
inequity, which is what the word iniquity means.
The word iniquity is the word inequity.
It means for you to respond with your
resources in a way that is not equitable.
You lavish them on yourselves, and there are
other people in the world who are dying
to support that extravagance.
That's inequity, iniquity.
And God hates it.
And he says here that the reason some
people have more than enough is so they
can give to those who don't have enough,
so things can be equaled out.
That's the only purpose, that you have more
than what you need.
I was telling a friend of mine about
a brother in our community who farms organically.
He feeds his cattle very little grain.
He says it's too expensive.
He grazes his cattle.
He has his whole farm basically in alfalfa.
He grows no corn.
And he makes a decent living.
And he said my cows don't get sick.
I don't have any mastitis.
I don't have any twisted stomachs.
My cows stay in the herd for 12
years instead of two or three like the
people who push them with energy.
And he was telling me what for a
wonderful experience he has farming.
He has healthy cows.
He makes a living.
Everything's fine.
I was telling a friend of mine about
that, and he said, now this was a
good plain Mennonite.
He said, yeah, he said, you can make
a living doing that, but you can't get
ahead.
I said, what do you mean by getting
ahead?
Well, he said, you'll never come up with
the money to buy the next farm.
See, that's our mentality, to get ahead.
And my question is to get ahead of
whom?
God?
He said, if you have extra money, it's
not yours to do with as you please.
It's here because there are many people in
the world who need that excess, and God,
for some reason, has given it to American
people and American Christians.
And what he's expecting to happen is for
this to flow from America to other parts
of the world so there can at least
be some semblance of equality worldwide.
This is an unbelievable opportunity.
An unbelievable opportunity.
Let's look at the response.
Let's turn to 2 Corinthians.
We're right here in Corinthians.
Let's look at chapter 9.
I like this verse.
Verse 6 of chapter 9.
But this I say, he which soweth sparingly
shall reap also sparingly.
And he that soweth bountifully shall reap also
bountifully.
Now, this is in the context of giving.
Read 8 and 9.
That's the context.
The person who gives sparingly will reap sparingly,
and the person who gives bountifully will reap
bountifully.
Every man according as he purposes in his
heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or
of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver.
Do you know what the Greek word for
cheerful there is?
Hilaros.
The word from which we get hilarious.
God loves a hilarious giver.
I mean, when he gives, he's in hilarity.
It is the most uplifting thing he can
think of to do.
That's the kind of giver God loves.
Let's continue.
And God is able to make all grace.
This verse is often quoted out of context.
This is in the context.
If you're not living as I was describing,
this verse does not apply to you.
God is able to make all grace abound
toward you that ye always, having all sufficiency
in all things, may abound unto every good
work.
That's to the hilarious giver.
I think if I asked for a raise
of hand, every person here would say they
want that kind of blessing.
I do.
God has clearly told us how you can
have it.
And if you turn to Philippians, it says...
Let's turn to it.
Philippians chapter 4.
I should be able to quote it right
off.
I'm getting older and absent-minded, and I
can't always quote.
Oh, yes.
Verse 19.
My God shall supply all your needs.
And again, this is in the context of
giving.
Paul's commending the people in Asia.
I'm sorry, in northern Greece.
Thessalonica, I think.
Philippi, I'm sorry.
He's commending the people in Philippi for sending
an offering to him.
And I want to read what he says
here.
Verse 17, before we get to verse 19.
Not because I desire a gift, but I
desire fruit that may abound to your account.
Paul says, the gift you sent to me,
I'm happy you sent it.
Not because you sent it to me, but
I am so happy with what's going to
happen to you as a result.
You have set to your account a bounding
gift and reward.
And then he goes down in verse 19,
and he says, But my God shall supply
all your need, according to his riches, in
glory by Christ Jesus, because of their response.
Now, if God gives us according to his
riches, that's a little bit different from him
giving out of his riches.
Let me explain the difference.
If I were a millionaire, and you had
a $50,000 hospital bill, and I paid
$40,000 of it, you would say that
was a pretty good gift.
But that would give you no clue how
wealthy I really am.
But if I paid you a whole $50
,000 bill and gave you $25,000 on
top of it just as a gift, that
would give you some clue how wealthy I
am.
And God gives us, to the cheerful giver,
to the hilarious giver, God gives according to
his riches, not out of his riches, commensurate
with his wealth.
That's how he gives.
This is a tremendous principle.
I want all of you to leave tonight
to be hilarious givers.
That's what I want to have happen.
All right?
Let's turn to Matthew chapter 6.
I mean, the gospel is just full of
this.
And I don't understand.
I don't understand why these themes are not
preached.
They are practical themes.
Everybody wrings their hands in plain circles and
says we're drowning in our materialism.
Listen, we're in a war against the world,
and the world is basically a materialistic world.
It values only the things you can see
and feel and touch and experiment with.
And we're in a war against that.
And the best way to win this war
is extravagant giving, to deal with this whole
problem in our lives.
Matthew chapter 6, verses 1 to 4.
Take heed that you do not your alms
before men to be seen of them.
Now, alms is giving.
I think the word alms here to the
Jewish mind meant any kind of righteous deeds,
but we think of it specifically in terms
of giving.
Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not
sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may have glory.
Verily I say unto you, they have their
reward.
But when thou doest alms, let not thy
left hand know what thy right hand doeth,
that thine alms may be in secret, and
this is the part that excites me, that
the Father which seeth in secret shall reward
thee openly.
Now, in reaction to the Roman Catholics that
had their means of grace, and I mentioned
those, I think, in my other message, we
have gone to the other extreme and have
said there are no means of grace.
There are means of grace.
Here he gives one of them.
When we give alms, God rewards us openly.
Not necessarily with alms.
Let me give you an example of a
man who God rewarded openly in a tremendous
way.
And you probably did not know what was
behind the scenes.
Let me tell you what was behind the
scenes.
His name was John Wesley.
Now listen to this.
John Wesley chose to live on what today
would be a salary of $20,000 a
year, and he never changed that through his
entire life.
That's what John Wesley lived on, $20,000
a year.
Now, John Wesley wrote many books and was
involved in many enterprises, and he earned approximately
$160,000 a year.
He never took out of that more than
$20,000.
He gave $140,000 of that.
And if you visit the Wesley Museum in
London, and you go down to the basement
of that church where he preached, and there's
a museum of John Wesley's life.
And I stood there convicted.
Here was a man who was known widely.
He was famous.
He could have had whatever he wanted.
There would have been Christian people who would
have been glad to give him pretty much
whatever honor, whatever position he wanted.
But here was a man who cared about
the poor in London.
And there was exhibit after exhibit of the
lengths that he would go to to just
help one prisoner who was in trouble or
one poor person who was in trouble.
John Wesley was an extravagant giver.
In fact, at one point in his life,
tea became expensive, and he quit drinking tea
so he would have that much more to
give to the Lord.
Those are the kinds of decisions he made.
And like I said, if you go down
there and look at his museum, he was
involved with jails and prisoners.
He was involved with the poorhouses.
He was involved with getting people to think
about freeing the slaves in England.
Everybody who was in need captured this man's
heart.
And here's an actual account.
Wesley had just finished buying some pictures for
his room when one of the chambermaids came
to his door.
It was a winter day, and he noticed
that she had only a thin linen gown
to wear for protection against the cold.
He reached into his pocket to give her
some money for a coat and found that
he had little left.
It struck him that the Lord was not
pleased with how he had spent his money.
He asked himself, Will thy master say well
done, thou good and faithful servant?
Thou hast adorned thy walls with the money
that might have screened this poor creature from
the cold.
Oh, justice!
Oh, mercy!
Are not these pictures the blood of this
poor woman?
Then, there's a reason why at his death
somebody made this comment about Wesley.
When Wesley left this world, he left a
battered hat, a worn coat, a tattered Bible,
and the Methodist church.
And that was not just a happenstance.
That whole statement is one statement.
That's why God blessed him.
I want you to turn to a very
interesting Scripture that's very often misunderstood.
Luke chapter 16.
And I'm going to take the time to
exposit this a little bit.
Chapter 16.
Jesus says to his disciples, beginning in verse
1, There was a certain rich man which
had a steward, and the same was accused
unto him that he had wasted his goods.
And he called him and said unto him,
How is it that I hear this of
thee, given account of thy stewardship?
For thou mayest no longer be steward.
Then the steward said within himself, What shall
I do?
My Lord's taken from me the stewardship.
I'm too lazy to dig.
I'm paraphrasing a little bit here.
And to beg I am ashamed.
I'm resolved what to do, that when I'm
put out of the stewardship, they may receive
me into their houses.
So he called unto every one of his
Lord's debtors, he called them unto him, and
said unto the first, How much dost thou
owe my Lord?
And he said, A hundred measures of oil.
And he said, Take your bill quickly, and
write fifty.
He was still giving away his Lord's money
unjustly.
Then he said to another, How much owest
thou?
And he said, A hundred measures of wheat.
And he said unto him, Take that bill
and write four score.
So you owe a hundred measures, just write
eighty.
We'll just give you twenty.
He had no authorization to do this, but
he was getting prepared for getting fired.
And the Lord, not Jesus, but his Lord,
who he had ripped off, commended him, because
he had done wisely.
For the children of this world are in
their generation wiser than the children of light.
This man knew that it was to his
advantage to make friends with his money, with
his Lord's money.
And we don't understand that.
Our Lord says, Do it!
And we don't do it.
Verse nine, And I say unto you, Make
to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness,
that when you fail, they may receive you
into everlasting habitation.
I'm not sure what all that means, but
that's what it says.
You're to do what this guy did.
That's what you're to do with your money.
Now here's the part I wanted to look
at.
Verse ten, He that is faithful in that
which is least is faithful also in much,
and he that is unjust in least is
unjust also in much.
And then he tells you what he's talking
about.
If therefore ye have not been faithful in
the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your
trust the kind of riches that John Wesley
experienced spiritually.
That's what he's saying.
God says this is a test.
I give you money.
That's least.
That's least on my scale of importance.
And I'm going to watch to see what
you do with it.
And then when I see what you've done
with your money, I will decide whether to
give you the true riches, which is the
kind of riches that John Wesley enjoyed in
his ministry.
Does that explain to you some things that
you may be often wondered about?
As to why there is so little power,
so little gifting, so little effect of our
witness and testimony.
It could just be that the Lord is
looking to this materialism that we all know
exists and the waste of our resources on
extravagance and luxuries and frivolous things.
And he says, if that's what they do
to the thing that I consider the least
important, I will never give them the things
that are really important.
This is amazing.
Let me turn to, now let's look at
a few positive.
We're looking at some positive examples.
Let's look at Isaiah 58.
We must close here directly.
These are promises.
Tremendous promises.
Verses 10 and 11.
It's in the context of fasting, but this
is what he says.
And if thou draw out thy soul to
the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then
shall thy light rise in obscurity.
John Wesley was not obscure.
Until it was all said and done, everybody
knew who John Wesley was.
And I'm not saying you should seek for
fame, but this is what it says.
Then shall thy light rise in obscurity and
thy darkness be as noonday.
What?
If you reach out your hand to the
poor.
Well, in Hurricane Katrina, the Christians do some
of this.
And what they do proves what I've been
saying all evening.
After Hurricane Katrina, Christians flooded the city with
food, water, supplies, labor, and shoulders to cry
on.
And it was obvious to the people of
New Orleans that the Christians were doing the
lion's share of the work in restoring their
city.
And a Jewish doctor looking on made this
comment when it was over.
There are no longer any agnostics in New
Orleans.
Eric Camille is a dear brother that visited
our congregation from Tallahassee, Florida.
It was his first contact with Anabaptists.
He looked up Anabaptists, Shippensburg Christian Fellowship came
up, he traveled the whole way from Tallahassee
with his dear wife to visit our congregation.
He said to me, Anabaptism is beautiful.
It is absolutely beautiful.
I did not know there were people like
this exist, but the thing that surprises me
is that you people keep it in the
four walls of your church buildings.
He said you folks should be down on
the streets of the cities helping the poor,
lifting the fallen.
He and his wife take what resources they
have, and he is not a wealthy man,
and they go down to the slums of
the city on a regular basis, take food
down there and prepare it on the sidewalks
and feed the hungry.
Every now and then they take a loaf
of bread and hang it on every door
in the poor part of the city and
they are down there all the time.
And he said, I don't understand you people
why you're not taking this to the streets.
And he hasn't joined any of our churches
as a result because he sees that as
a tremendous blind spot.
John 15 says that if we obey the
Lord our joy will be full.
Let me read you an account.
Sunday in our church when we were studying
the story of the rich young man in
Mark 10, I received the following email from
one of our members.
My wife and I went home emptied all
our clothes onto the bed, got several bags
of canned goods and all the baby clothes
our son has grown out of in addition
to the toys he doesn't play with anymore.
I took several hundred dollars of cash that
I was saving to upgrade the front lawn.
By the way, how much do you put
into your front lawn?
And I can't imagine it.
I cannot imagine the money people spend on
their lawn.
And drove over to the projects downtown and
prayed.
I prayed for the people I didn't know
who were about to receive what I had
too much of.
In the first house was a man of
30 who had a baby and needed some
work clothes.
Perfect.
I had my clothes to give him and
baby toys and clothes and he needed money
for groceries so I gave him a hundred
dollars.
The next house had a couple who needed
clothing for the wife and money for a
car payment so I gave her my wife's
clothes and a hundred dollars.
We prayed with each family and told them
we came with God.
I got such a rush out of this
that we ran home, got more things to
give away and my wife and I are
consistently serving at the homeless shelter downtown and
I'm going to start teaching art and graphics
at the homeless learning center.
He got a charge out of this.
I ask you tonight, what do you get
your kicks out of?
What do you get your rush out of?
Is it that new electronic gadget?
Is it that extravagant automobile that you don't
need that's way more than transportation that was
bought to make a statement to prove something?
Is that what you get your rush out
of?
Why don't you do this?
You will be surprised at what it will
do for you.
Take $500, go downtown and do what this
man did.
See what happens.
Tertullian identified the outpouring of sacrificial love as
the key factor to explain the multitudes that
came to Christ in those first centuries.
Albert Einstein said, the world is a dangerous
place not because of those who do evil
but because of those who look on and
do nothing.
We are to overcome evil with good.
That's what we're supposed to be doing.
Gandhi one time was asked by E.
Stanley Jones.
E.
Stanley Jones desperately tried to get Gandhi to
make a commitment to Christ.
And so he asked Gandhi one time, what
is the hindrance to you responding to Jesus?
And Gandhi said, the Christians.
Suppose the Mennonites repented of their materialism and
became known for their sacrificial and extravagant generosity
and obedience to Christ.
Now, most people do look at us as
people who are there when there's disaster.
I mean, there's some of this going on.
But they also know that we have piles
of money left.
And we are known for our wealth.
We are known for being people who have
money.
Suppose we were known as people who have
depleted ourselves of our resources and have been
the most generous people on the face of
the earth.
You could help to change that.
We could have a different generation.
Coupled with non-resistance, this would be the
most powerful testimony in the world.
Will we be remembered as the generation that
rose up to conquer world poverty the best
we could with our small numbers?
And answer the tragedies of worldwide greed and
oppression with Christ-like compassion?
Or will we be written down finally when
somebody writes our history as the most selfish
generation that loved its soft drinks, fancy cars,
cosmetics, extravagant clothes, expensive electronic gadgets, oversized houses,
and costly vacations?
This is serious.
God is not mocked.
He says, Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall
he also reap.
And by the way, the emphasis there is
not on the negative.
Would you turn to it?
Galatians chapter 6.
I mean, all my life when this scripture
was preached, it was always preached in the
negative, but that's not where the emphasis rests
here.
I want to inspire you.
I'm not here to scold.
I'm here to inspire, and I'm preaching to
myself.
Galatians, verse 7.
Be not deceived.
God is not mocked.
For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he
also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall
of the flesh reap corruption, but, now here's
the real emphasis.
But he that soweth to the spirit shall
of the spirit reap life everlasting.
And let us not be weary in well
doing, for in due season we shall reap
if we faint not.
As we have, therefore, opportunity, let us do
good unto all men, especially those who are
of the household of faith.
And you have Christian brothers and sisters around
the world who are starving.
It's not the high cost of living, it
is the cost of high living.
And I'm amazed at what has happened in
my generation.
Let me give an example out of my
own home.
We took a bath once a week.
I grew up on a farm, and that
wasn't unusual.
That's what everybody did.
You took a bath once a week and
changed your clothes, and mom washed on Monday
morning all the clothes for a family of
13, and she was done with her washing.
When my twin brothers were born, which they
were the last in the family, my father
thought my mother needed some help, so he
went and bought her an automatic washer and
an automatic dryer and put a bathroom in
the house.
And then we washed, took a bath every
day.
And I recommend that, by the way.
And I'm not recommending we necessarily go back,
but I just want to show you what
happened.
Then we took a bath, all 13 of
us, took a bath every day and put
on clean clothes, and my mother washed every
day with her automatic washer.
And she had less time than she had
before.
When I was a boy, we visited all
over the community.
During the week, today people visit maybe on
Sunday, but you'd never go to visit someone
on Tuesday evening, especially unannounced, and we never
called anybody.
We just got in the car and said,
let's go visit.
We children would say to our parents, if
we get all the work done early, will
we go visiting tonight because we love to
go visiting?
Yeah, sure.
So we'd all get in the car Tuesday
night, we'd drive to the first place unannounced,
and no, they're not home.
So we'd go out the lane, go to
the next place, and we kept going until
someone was at home.
My father had not eight brothers and sisters.
There were nine in his family.
My mother had ten brothers and sisters.
There were 11 in her family.
We visited all of those people maybe two
or three times a year plus many friends.
There's nobody today that visits like that that
I know of.
Why?
Because we have our automatic washers.
Grandmother had a carpet in the front room.
The only maintenance that carpet got, by the
way, was she picked up the lint every
now and then, took it out on the
line, and I remember this, and you took
a carpet beater and you beat the dust
out of it and then you took it
back in and there it stayed for a
whole year.
So the children say, let's help grandma out.
Let's buy her a vacuum cleaner.
So they buy her a vacuum cleaner.
Now she doesn't have to take the carpet
out and hang it over the clothesline anymore
and beat the dust out of it.
But what you don't know is now grandma's
gonna put the carpet in every room of
the house and she's gonna sweep it every
day, every other day.
And that's what's happened.
It's not the high cost of living, it's
the cost of high living.
And we have put ourselves in bondage with
our luxuries and our high expectations of what
life should be.
And the key to freedom from this deadly
thing is to begin to be extravagant with
our compassion and begin to sacrifice and somehow
bring some sense of equity between us and
the needs of our world.
We are in a battle, and I'm concluding
with a little story.
In the late 1940s, the U.S. government
commissioned William Francis Gibbs to work with the
United States lines to build a navy carrier,
the likes of which had never been built
before, and it was to cost 80 million
dollars.
This was to be equipped to carry 15
,000 troops.
In 1952, the SS United States was completed.
It could travel at 51 miles per hour,
faster than any other ship.
It could cover 10,000 miles without stopping
for food or supplies.
It could travel anywhere in the world in
less than 10 days.
It was the fastest and most reliable troop
carrier in the world.
The problem is this.
It never carried any troops.
Somebody convinced the line to turn this ship
into a luxury liner for heads of state
and celebrities.
Until they got finished refurbishing it, it could
carry only 2,000 passengers instead of 15
,000.
It had 695 state rooms, 4 dining salons,
3 bars, 2 theaters, 5 acres of open
deck, and a heated swimming pool and fully
air conditioned.
And it was no longer a vessel for
battle, but a means of indulgence so wealthy
people could comfortably ride across the Atlantic Ocean.
Did you know the church has designed for
battle?
We're in a war.
Christ wants to mobilize this whole audience for
mission.
I'm not talking necessarily about foreign mission, but
that's included.
He wants to mobilize every one of you
for mission for the needs we've talked about
tonight plus the spiritual needs.
Have we turned the church into a luxury
liner?
There's a song we sang at the beginning.
It reads this way.
In your costly temples praying, let thy kingdom
come, we pray, are but words of idle
meaning if from these we turn away.
The people I talked about here tonight.
Are we willing to change the church into
a troop carrier for battle?
Are we willing to obey the clear orders
of Jesus that we have a responsibility to
the needs of our world?
Are we willing to forsake comforts to meet
the great need and danger in the inner
cities, disease ridden, third world countries and hostile
regions of the Middle East?
Are we willing to make those kinds of
sacrifice?
Are we willing to make the richest country
of the world a means for exalting Christ
through the investment of our resources?
Pilgrims have lots to invest.
In the last century an American tourist paid
a visit to the renowned Polish rabbi Hofetz
Chaim.
He was astonished to see that the rabbi
had a simple room with a few books
plus a table and a cot.
The puzzled American asked, My, where's your furniture?
Hofetz replied, where's yours?
Huh, I'm just a tourist.
I'm just here passing through.
The rabbi replied, So am I.