Getting to the Heart of (Not) Giving
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
This is the word of the Lord, Matthew Chapter 6, verses 25–34.
We are in sermon #4 of the ROOTED series, and this morning I wanna talk to you about money. . . . Who in here is excited to talk about money?
Okay, so one little goal I have for the next couple sermons is that the next time I ask that question more of us can raise our hands. And in case you’re in here this morning, and you have no clue what’s going on, let me try to put all this in context.
ROOTED Up to Now
We are just past the halfway mark of our ROOTED series, which represents the beginning of a new chapter in the life of our church. We are going from having been a church planted to becoming a church rooted.
And there are three parts to this initiative (which is page 5 in your guidebook). The first part is that we would freshly embrace our vision, and it all starts here. This is the most important part, and the first three sermons of this series have been all about that. We’ve looked at our three essentials as a church: Jesus, one another, and the Twin Cities.
We worship Jesus;
we love one another; and
we seek the good of these Twin Cities for the glory of God.
And last Sunday, Pastor David Mathis called us to that. He called us to be rooted here, which gets at the second part of this initiative, and that is to invest in our footprint. Our vision as a church is local. We are called to be the church here in the Twin Cities, starting at 1524 Summit Avenue, and so we want to steward the building that God has provided us. And that means we want to do renovations to this space that maximize it for ministry and make it a lighthouse for the glory of Jesus. And there’s a process for how that goes and there are membership meetings to have, but down the road it means we’re going to do construction. And that leads to the third part of ROOTED, which is that we commit to give.
If we embrace the vision, and we’re here, then it means that we’re going to give to what God is doing here, and so over the next two sermons I wanna talk about this giving piece. And it’s going to take two sermons because for this first sermon I need to address the elephant in the room.
Y’all know what that is? ... The elephant in the room.
The Elephant in the Room
That’s a great figure of speech, right? Imagine an elephant. An elephant is a big animal, no matter where it is. But imagine if there was an elephant right here in the middle of this room. [Do you see it?]
If there’s an elephant in the room, then you can’t really talk about anything else until you acknowledge the elephant — that’s what the figure of speech means — because if you don’t acknowledge the elephant, that’s all people are going to be thinking about anyway. Because it’s an elephant!
Okay, so here’s the elephant in our room: it’s that over the next two sermons we’re going to talk about giving, and most people do not give.
That’s just a ubiquitous fact about Americans. All the studies over the last 20 years show this. The average American gives less than 2% of their income to charitable organizations. And of the less than 2% that Americans give, less than 40% of that goes to religious institutions like churches. But that’s just about Americans, what about Christians? Well, the average Protestant Christian in America gives the same as the average anybody: two percent.
The Question to Address
So that’s the elephant. There it is. And now that leads to the question I want to address this morning. The question is: Why don’t Christians give more money to God?
The goal of this sermon is to answer that question and then consider the remedy that Jesus gives us, but first we need to pray again. Let’s pray together:
Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word that shows us the path of life. This morning I ask that you would break through our potential misconceptions and hangups on this topic, and I ask that by your Spirit you would guide us in all truth through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
So why don’t Christians give more money to God?
What Jesus Shows Us
I think Jesus shows us in Matthew 6, and we can see it when we understand the connection between verses 19–24 and verses 25–34. There is where we find the answer to our question — and I want to put it in one, very clear sentence — but before I do, I want us to get there together.
Let’s start with verse 19. Jesus is talking about money here, and it’s one of his most reasonable teachings in all the Gospels. He gives us a negative/positive. Here is something not to do, and here is something to do.
First, what not to do. This is the negative, verse 19: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in a steal.” [That’s verse 19 — do we all see the negative?]
Second, what to do. This is the positive, verse 20: “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in a steal.”
That’s verse 20. So we can all see what Jesus is saying here:
Verse 19: Do not lay us treasures on earth.
Verse 20: Do lay up treasures in heaven.
Now what is the reason Jesus says this? Why not lay up treasures on earth? Why should we lay up treasures in heaven?
Well, guess what? The reason Jesus says this is not because of what moths or rust or thieves do. When Jesus mentions those three things in verses 19 and 20, he doesn’t state them as reasons, but as characteristics. These three things characterize the earth. On earth, moths eat clothes; rust exists; thievery happens. But in heaven, none of those things happen —
… and so if you want to do a risk-assessment and invest your treasure based upon the probability of those characteristics, that’s fine, but that’s not Jesus’s main point! His main point is in verse 21: It’s that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. That’s his reason for why you should not lay up treasures on earth.
And your treasure here is not an exact correlation to your money, but it’s more like what you do with your money. Your treasure is what your money acquires; it’s your financial investments, or what you accrue with your money over time — that becomes the place of your devotion and love, Jesus says. That is where your heart will be.
Which is why healthy discipleship must talk about money. Jesus teaches us that money and our hearts are so closely connected, and so if we’re going to follow Jesus and we care about one another’s hearts, we’re gonna talk about money. It’s a good thing!
And y’all know, if you’ve been around our church, we’ve hardly talked about money at all the last six years, which is a bad thing … it’s been part of our immaturity.
So imagine that weeks from now, months from now, I have a conversation with someone new to Cities Church. Just imagine this: they’re new, and they come up to me and they say, Pastor, I’ve noticed that at this church you guys often say stuff about money.
Then I say: I know, isn’t it great! We really want to follow Jesus and we care about one another’s hearts. That’s my reply.
Because Jesus says that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
And if all your treasure is “earthly treasure” it will get eaten and rusty and stolen — because that happens on this earth — and when that happens what will that mean for your heart? That’s what Jesus is talking about.
And we assume that if your treasure gets rusty, and your treasure is where your heart is, then your heart must get rusty too. If your treasure gets eaten away at, little by little, then your heart must get eaten too [shrinking heart gesture with hands].
And if your heart does that, everything else is gonna go sideways.
That’s what verses 22–23 are getting at when Jesus talks about the eye and the body. The eye has an important guiding function for rest of our bodies. Your eyes are meant to show you where to go, but if they malfunction, if they’re blinded, then you can’t see. It’s darkness, and you don’t know where to go.
And in the same way, the heart steers the person … and treasure steers the heart. And so Jesus makes it all very plain in verse 24. He says that money, like God, is a master, and a servant cannot serve two masters. “You cannot serve God and money.”
Or as the King James puts it: mammoN. “You cannot serve God and mammoN.” And that’s a great word, not one we use everyday. MammoN a transliteration of a Hebrew word, and it’s important because it means more than just money, but it includes liquid cash and possessions and the whole deal. And it’s a master. It is a god all its own. And you cannot serve that god and the true God because the true God deserves and demands exclusive allegiance. And so you have to choose.
This is how Jesus teaches us about money. And we get it, right? Some of us are very familiar with this passage. We’ve read it before.
And it seems like, based upon what Jesus says here and his reasoning, that 10 out of 10 followers of Jesus are going to say: Hey, okay, yes, I choose God. I will serve God, not money.
But does that mean we give less than 2% of our income?
It’s important that we see Jesus isn’t done teaching. Look at verse 25.
The Anxiety Behind Greed
And notice especially that verse 25 comes after what Jesus says about money. That’s because I think Jesus is anticipating a good question.
People hear (and read) this teaching of Jesus, that you cannot serve God and money, and they ask, or they think:
But wait a minute, if I don’t serve money then how will I make it in this world? Because I have to have money. Money is used to take care of me. Money gets me what I need and more. Just practically, I don’t know what I would do if money is not my master.
And Jesus says to that, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious …”
You cannot serve God and money, and do not be anxious about not having the things you think money gets you.
Do you see? Jesus teaches us not to serve money, and then he tells us not to be anxious.
Could it be that anxiety is the real cause of greed?
Of course it is.
We are anxious that we won’t have enough. If we give that money there, we might not have money for this, or that … or that — it keeps going.
Remember the question is: Why don’t Christians give more money to God?
The one-sentence answer is this: Christians don’t give more money to God because we’re anxious that if we do it will make us miserable.
That is the anxiety that Jesus addresses in verses 25–34. It’s the anxiety that we won’t have enough to eat; we won’t have enough to drink; we won’t have clothes to wear. And being in the predicament of lacking those things is miserable. And we don’t wanna be miserable. We are anxious about being miserable — and so that’s why we relate to money the way we do.
Two Types of Anxiety
And Jesus directly addresses one type of misery here — the misery of our needs not being met — but there are two types of misery and I want to talk about that for a few minutes.
And just to be clear on what I’m doing here:
We’re talking about anxiety because that’s where Jesus goes in verse 25. And if you drill down into the anxiety, we see that the anxiety is about misery, and if you drill down into the misery, there are at least two types of misery that we try to avoid with money.
One is the misery of lack (which is what Jesus addresses head-on); but the other is the misery of boredom.
The misery of lack says I have nothing to eat; the misery of boredom says I have nothing to do.
The misery of lack drives a fear that we will not have enough, and so we keep.
The misery of boredom drives a desire for abundance, and so we spend.
So those who might lack and those who might get bored,
Those who keep and those who spend,
Those who save and those who shop,
— both can be efforts not to be miserable; both can come from a place of anxiety; and both can have no room for giving. Do you see?
To give is to neither keep nor spend. To give is to neither save nor shop.
And that can make us anxious because if we give that money we don’t have that money to keep or spend, and then we might be miserable, and that is where the anxiety comes from.
And we all know this. We feel this. And this is not to say that we don’t ever keep or spend — of course we do. But if we keep and spend from anxiety, and therefore we do not give, Jesus has something to say to us. And it’s not about giving, it’s about anxiety.
Jesus is concerned with heart. So he tells us, Don’t be anxious! Look at the birds of the air! They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
The Remedy to Our Anxiety
Do you know that God cares about you more than he cares about the birds?
That is how Jesus confronts our anxiety. He reminds us about the Father’s love.
To be honest, if you’re part of our church, I don’t ultimately care whether you give your money to Cities Church, but I do care if you don’t give your money because you don’t think God will take care of you.
That anxiety is the bigger issue. And like Jesus, I want to go there, and I want to remind you of what Jesus tells us.
The remedy to our anxiety is to remember the Father’s care for us. And in this passage, Jesus gives us three facts:
#1. You are valuable to God. (verse 26)
Altogether, this is the point Jesus makes:
God always takes care of the birds;
God values you more than the birds;
therefore, implied, God will always take care of you.
It’s simple here to see the totality of what Jesus says, but I don’t want us to rush past the minor premise that you are valuable to God. Because of his love for you, through your faith in Jesus, as a son or daughter of God, God is your Father, and his posture toward you is love.
It’s not a coincidence that in the Sermon on the Mount, here in Matthew 6, Jesus repeatedly calls God “your Father.” He’s our father! It’s OUR heavenly Father who feeds the birds — and there’s nothing here against the birds, but he’s OUR Father! We matter more to him!
One of my pastors growing up preaches this sermon called, “The Birds Are Still Singing.” And it’s a brilliant sermon because he takes what Jesus says here — “Look at the birds” — and he says basically that birds exist to remind us of God’s care for us, and therefore, every time you hear a bird sing, you should receive it as a reminder that God cares for you. And guess what? Birds are singing all the time. You should try this out over the next week: look at the birds, listen for the birds, and you’re gonna to hear them everywhere, because God takes care of them. And you are more valuable than they.
Second fact Jesus gives us:
#2. Your heavenly Father knows all your needs. (verse 32)
That’s the reason we should not be anxious about what we’re going to eat and drink and wear. The Gentiles, the nations, those without a heavenly Father, they seek after all those things, but you — we — we have a heavenly Father, and our heavenly Father knows that we need them all.
Jesus told us this earlier in Chapter 6. He says in Chapter 6, verse 8, not to pray like the Gentiles (who think they will be heard for their many words) — don’t be like them, Jesus says, because “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
Now look, this is hard for adults, because a big part of being an adult is that you have to think about things that as a child you didn’t have to think about. When I look at my younger kids, I realize they don’t have to think about anything. What they eat or drink or wear — it never crosses their minds. You know why? Because it’s on mine.
Can you imagine yourself as a child under the care of your heavenly Father and what you need is on his mind? And what you need tomorrow is on his mind today! He’s our Father and he knows.
Third fact:
#3. Your heavenly Father will supply all these things. (verse 33)
This is an amazing promise. Matthew 6:33 — and I remember my dad teaching me this verse when I was a kid — “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”
This goes back to verse 24. Serve God, seek God, put God first and his kingdom and his way, and all these types of things that we are prone to be anxious about, God will provide.
Don’t be anxious, because God is your heavenly Father and he cares for you.
Question. Answer. Remedy.
Question: Why don’t Christians give more money to God?
Answer: Because we are anxious that if we do it will make us miserable.
Remedy: Remember that God is our heavenly Father and he cares for us.
The Paradigm-Shift on Giving
And when we really get this, it will create a paradigm-shift for how we think about giving.
Because it will cause us to look up.
When it comes to giving, so often we look down. We think about giving in terms of what difference the giving will make for us — and so we have our anxieties. But what about God?
What if we thought about our giving from the perspective of our heavenly Father who we know cares for us? What if we thought about giving in the context of that father-child relationship, and we knew that through our giving we can actually bring delight to the heart of our Father?
We’re gonna talk more about that next week, but the foundation is where Jesus takes us in Matthew 6 — it’s that God is our Father and he cares for us.
And now that’s what brings us to the Table.
The Table
God is a good father to care for our needs, but our greatest need goes way beyond food and clothing. It’s our need for the forgiveness of our sins. And for that God has provided a lamb.
To see God’s love for us most vividly, we don’t look to the bread and drink on our tables, but we look to the cross of Jesus, which is what the bread and drink of this Table represents.
The bread represents the broken body of Jesus; the cup represents his shed blood which was poured out for you for the the forgiveness of your sins.
So if you’re here this morning, and you embrace Jesus, if you trust in him, we invite you to eat and drink with us.
His body is the true bread; his blood is the true drink. Let us serve you.
