I gotta admit.
Some of the stuff this guy does with kids seem a little cruel. Years ago, he challenged parents to pretend
they had eaten all their kid’s Halloween candy, and then record their reactions
and send it in. Boy, that seems like a
twisted trick to play on a kid. Still,
Jimmy Kimmel, the late show TV host, does some things with kids that aren’t
simply funny, they go deeper than you’d think.
And when I saw this video…well, why don’t you watch it for yourself (at least the first part - that's the part that got me not the hair cutting stuff.)
Many years ago, the preacher Tim Keller was talking to
his son about sex. His son asked him.
So, which is it, dad? Is sex
good or bad? And Keller said. It all depends. Is fire good or bad? It’s good if it’s in the fireplace. But if it’s on the carpet in the living room,
not so much. And what Keller said about
sex holds true for money. If you keep
money in its proper place, it’s good, even necessary. But if it gets out of the fireplace, so to
speak, it will burn you. It will rob you
of what life is meant to be. And money
has lots of sneaky ways of getting out of the fireplace without you even
knowing it, even as it was in that kid’s relationship with his uncle.
So how do you keep your money in the fireplace? How do you keep it from burning you, from
robbing you of life? In these words,
part of an ancient fundraising letter, God shows you the way. Let’s listen and hear what God has to say.
You gotta have money, right? And money does a lot of good. More than that, when you have money, it does
you good. But your money can do you wrong. It can hijack your life. It can rob you of life. So, how do you keep money doing what money
does best? How do you keep it in its
proper place? Here in Paul’s words, God
tells you. You realize who really owns your
wealth, and how he gave his wealth up for you.
But before you can understand who really owns what you
have, you need to understand how money does you good, and how money messes you
up. To understand that, you need to
understand what money gives you. Money
gives you power. Power simply means you
have the freedom to act, to do things. Let’s say, you’re hungry. Well, your money determines how you can address
that need. If you have lots of money
you have lots of choices. And if you
don’t, that limits your choices.
Recently we had an election. Were you aware of that? In those elections, candidates spent a lot
of money. In fact, commentators talked
about the money race, how the candidates with the most money up their chances
of winning. Why does that increase
their chances? They can do more
stuff. They can put out more ads. They can hire more staff to get people to the
polls. The money gives them freedom to
act, to do things.
And when you don’t have money, you don’t have that
freedom. That can be a deeply painful
thing. On election day, I spent some
time driving people to the polls, including a homeless couple, who had ended up
at the wrong voting site. The man told how they were living in a tent,
and how they yearned just to have a night or two in a place with a shower,
where they could get cleaned up. I did
what I could to help, took their number to stay in touch, but can you imagine
how that felt. Without money, they had
no options, no ability to act, to do hardly anything. And that can be an awful thing.
Many years ago, I was watching Oprah talk about
poverty on her show. Someone mentioned
how she was struggling with credit card debt.
Now Oprah expressed sympathy. But
she also said, “If you’re poor, you don’t even have credit to begin with.” You don’t have that option. You
have such limited ability to act. And
that can be so painful.
Money, with the choices it brings, the freedom, it
dignifies you. Everybody needs to feel
they have some choices, some freedom to do things for themselves, for their
family, for others. And money brings
that. It dignifies you. But while money can dignify you, it can’t
define you. It can’t determine your
worth as a person.
Yet money often does.
If you don’t have a lot of money, you can feel less worthy, as if
somehow you are broken or defective. And
if you have a lot of money, you can feel superior, even morally better. But money doesn’t determine any of those
things. And if you let money do that,
then you don’t have money. No, your money
has you.
So, how do you appreciate the dignity that money gives
you, without letting that same money define you? How do you distinguish your net worth from
your true worth?
You realize. Whatever you have doesn’t really belong
to you. It never did. It never
will. Sure, you can think. The money I have I earned. Nobody gave me what I have. Ok.
But who gave you your body? Who
gave you the air you’re breathing right now?
Who gave you the planet you live on?
You didn’t earn any of that. No,
all that was given to you. It’s still
being given to you right now. You may
have done good things with what you were given.
But that doesn’t change the fact that you were given it. You did not get it. Someone, someone you can call God, gave it to
you. No, what the Bible tells you goes
further. God didn’t give it to you. God entrusted it to you. It still belongs to God. God is simply letting you use it for a
bit. In the end, it still belongs to
God. And that implies a
responsibility.
Many years ago, when they were filming Miami Vice here
in South Florida, the producers wanted to use a certain house for a
location. They knocked on the door. When the guy opened it up, they offered him
money to use the house, and voila, they had a location. But the guy who opened the door didn’t own
the house. And when the owner showed up
and saw cameras and cables all over his front lawn, it didn’t go that well.
When you realize whatever you have doesn’t belong to
you, it shifts your perspective. You
start asking yourself. Am I using what
God entrusted to me as God intends? Am I
a good trustee or not? More than that,
it liberates you. It liberates you from
anxiety about your money. After all, it
doesn’t belong to you anyway. And in
that freedom, you begin thinking about what the owner would want you to do with
that money in the first place. That’s
what happened with the Macedonians that Paul talks about in this letter.
Paul is writing to a church in Corinth to ask them for
money to care for victims of a famine in Jerusalem. And as Paul knows this church well, he knows
they have money to give. So, to inspire them, he tells them about the
Christians in Macedonia, followers of Jesus who had hardly anything to spare. Yet
even so, they joyfully, sacrificially gave to help the needy in Jerusalem. And as Paul talks about that giving, he says
something a little weird.
Paul writes.
They gave themselves first to God, then to us by God’s will. Why is that weird? Well, hadn’t they already given themselves to
God? Isn’t that what becoming a
Christian means, giving your life to God.
So, if they had already done that, what is Paul telling you. He is telling you what the Christian
reformer, Martin Luther, put another way. Luther said. There are three conversions in the life of a
Christian, conversion of the mind, conversion of the heart and conversion of
the purse. You see. The Macedonians got it. Whatever they had,
already belonged to God anyway. And now just
as they had placed their hearts and minds in God’s hands, they were doing it
with their purses. And once they did, they had no issues with
saying yes, to Paul’s ask, to giving joyfully to this need in Jerusalem.
But then Paul goes beyond the Macedonians. He points to Jesus himself. Why did the Macedonians give so
generously? They realized. God had already given first. In Jesus, God not only gave up the wealth of
heaven, for the poverty of life living among the poor in Palestine. No, In Jesus, God gave up everything, even
his very life for them, for us, for you. And when you realize how radically God has
already sacrificed for you, to bring you home, to set you free, it sets you
free. It sets you free from ever
doubting your worth. After all, the God
of all creation gave up everything for you.
And more than that. You
realize. How can I not give after what
God has given for me?
And here’s the kicker.
When you give to what God values, when you give to help people in need, to help others know of God’s love, that investment never goes away. It lasts forever. If you give to a political candidate, even if
they win, they won’t be there forever.
If you invest in some company, that won’t be forever. But when you invest in what God values, you
invest in what matters eternally, what will never ever go away.
George, this very wealthy guy died and went to heaven.
As George arrived, one of the angels
arrived to escort him to his new home.
And as he went, he saw his old gardener sitting in front of this
magnificent home. He said to the angel. “Hey, that’s my
gardener, Bob.” Oh yes, the angel
said. “Bob loved so generously. He gave sacrificially to his church, to the
poor, to neighbors in need. He did so
much with the little he had.” As they
keep walking, he sees a woman who attended his church. “She also has a beautiful home.” He mentions her to the angel. “Oh yes, that’s Minerva’s home. She gave generously to children, served and
provided for them in her church, was there for her neighbors in need.” Now George is getting excited. If Minerva and Bob have homes like these,
what is he going to get?” They turn
the corner. He sees a shabby little shack, with a few chairs inside. The angel smiles and says, “George, welcome
to heaven.” George is appalled. He cries out!
“This is my house! How can this
be my house?” The angel, a little
embarrassed, says, “Gosh, George, we did the best we could with what you sent
us.” A cute joke, but it presents the
question. What are you sending? What are you doing with what God has
entrusted to you? What are you giving to
this God who in Jesus has already given everything for you? Take a look at your calendar and checkbook, it will tell you all you need to know.
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