Open the word of God to Matthew 6:19 as we continue our summer series in the Sermon on the Mount. Bow your head with me in prayer. Jesus said, “Where two or more are gathered in my name I am in your midst.” Are we here in the name of Jesus this morning, church? Take a moment in silence to become aware of Jesus’ presence with us. Let’s open ourselves to the word of God and not human ideas, asking the Lord to overcome every area of resistance in our life that is not aligned with His perfect will. We pray this together in agreement in Jesus’ name. Amen.

In Matthew 6, Jesus is confronting our religious hypocrisy in a painful way. It’s not that any of us consciously try to pretend to be something we’re not. We’re blind to our own hypocrisy. It’s a subjective state of self-denial. It’s really easy with the multiple priorities and the speed of routine days, to try to separate the spiritual from practical material realities and we can’t. Jesus gets very practical and concrete: you’ve got to put your money where your mouth is. You can’t separate what you profess from what you actually posses in your life. What you believe, you have to be. This is what he is challenging.

Jesus begins with three practical ways that deal with our life. He begins with our treasures and that which we hold most valuable. Look at Matthew 6:19. “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.” As I look at that verse, it doesn’t say that we’ll never have temporal treasures in our life, but it says don’t focus on storing up those things that are only temporary. Matthew 6:20-24 continue, “But focus your life on storing up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust don’t destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What do treasures represent in our life? Things that we most value, right? The ultimate priorities. I loved the Indiana Jones’ movies series. I thought the first and the third movies were the best. In the first movie, they were in pursuit of the Arc of the Covenant, remember that? And in the third, with Sean Connery, they were pursuing the Chalice of Christ from the Last Supper. What I love about those movies is that when you’re willing, it changes all of the priorities in your life when you go out in pursuit of what you consider most valuable. You cast reason aside, and you’re willing to take great risk.

One of the ways that you can really expose what your priorities are is to look at your calendar. What God is doing this morning is exposing our treasures. There are a lot of things we believe in that we would love to have on our daily schedules, but we can’t find the time for. For example, how many of you believe in healthy eating and exercise? How may of you, however, failed to find time for exercise this week? I ran 17.5  miles this week; my long was 5.4; my short was 3. I made it to the gym three days this week. No matter how busy I am, whether I’m travelling or not, I don’t make that excuse. I find time to put that on my calendar. When I’m in Khartoum, Sudan, I find my way to the gym. When I’m in Seoul, Korea, I find my way to the gym. I’m going to be preaching and teaching in Ho-Chi-Minh City in Vietnam in January. I’ve been asked to train the first Vietnamese pastors who will go out into the country and spread the Gospel. Any Vietnam Vets in the room? This is the war that godless communism can’t win. They can’t win the war against the Gospel, so be praying about that. But, in Ho-Chi-Minh City, I’ll find a way to exercise. It really tells you what I believe. If you really believe it or if you really value it, you’ll find time to place that in your schedule no matter what. Every day this week, I was up at 5:30 a.m., as I was this morning, in the word of God. No matter how busy I am, I have time to place that in my schedule. So that reveals my treasures, my priorities and my values.

Another way to expose your priorities is to look at your possessions. If you invited me into your home today and allowed me to go through your garage, closets and drawers, I would get a pretty good sense of what you value. Carolyn and I are discipling a group of young twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings in our home. On Tuesday nights, we move all of the furniture against the walls to fit 26 people into one room. Two of those folks are Nick Cunningham, our Youth Pasto, and his wife. When we began this group in the spring, I asked Nick if he was excited about getting the group started. Nick said, “Oh yeah, I’m excited about seeing your house and your stuff.” Well, I said, “Nick, I don’t want you to get too disappointed, but when you come to my house you’ll see that I still have my grandmother’s couch.” Carolyn would probably like to have a different couch.

Now this couch looks a lot older than I feel inside. I intended to get one of those brown, more contemporary leather couches, but we haven’t gotten around to it. Dan Bracken came to my house and he said this honestly, he wasn’t just teasing me:

“Man, this is the ugliest couch I have ever seen in my entire life.”

Dan also said, “My grandparents don’t even have a couch that bad.” What this reveals is a little bit of what Carolyn and I consider to be most valuable.

Now what Jesus is doing is showing us the contrast between our religious profession, practice and true faith. For Jesus, religion isn’t the same as true faith. Religion is kind of the mixture of scriptural truth and cultural values. It mixes the two together. Have any of you been to Haiti? You’ll have plenty of opportunities to go to Haiti coming up as we send work teams. The first time I went to Haiti was in 1978, and I was shocked to see how they blend Christianity and voodoo. It’s like oil and water. How do you mix the devil and Jesus? It doesn’t go together. In most of the western world, what we’ve done is mix Christianity and secular materialism. On one hand, we hold up the word and we believe in the values of God, but on the other hand, we place our faith or trust in the pursuit of things. Like we’re going to find life and meaning in things, or in money.

This week, HBO aired a new documentary called “Lucky,” which follows the life of people who’ve won the lottery. Have any of you seen it? There’s a great line in the movie, “Winning the lottery is like throwing Miracle Grow on your worst character traits.” The documentary follows the destructive things that happen in people’s lives. One guy bought 1,200 pairs of pants, an airplane and a multitude of other things. You won’t believe this, but the whole time I was watching the show it hooked this materialistic emotion in me. I begin to fantasize about what I would do or how I would spend 20 million dollars. I can’t believe it. I think well, one thing I could really use is a jet. I’m sitting there thinking, it would make my life so much easier. We’re always on the phone trying to schedule things. For instance, one Bishop wants me going to a Conference in New Jersey on June 3^rd ; then another Bishop wants me to do three presentations in Alabama on June 4^th. Michael Pollard travels with me, and if we miss a flight somewhere, we’re cooked. I need a jet. It’s for Jesus! Then I began thinking, I need more than $20 million dollars because the jet costs $15 million and there’s upkeep, pilot salaries and other stuff. Can you believe, I’m fanaticizing about this stuff while watching the show? Then, all of a sudden, I start thinking about eating healthy, and taking care of the temple of God. Carolyn and I are so busy serving in ministry, what we really need is a chef to purchase food and prepare meals. Do you see how we can get caught up in this kind of stuff?

Most of us, who write books in the Christian world don’t make a lot of money on book sales. I could not live off the money (royalties) that I receive on books. A Christian best seller will sell 5,000 books. Rick Warren and I have been in a group together called Leadership Network. Rick Warren was one of us that hit the lottery on his book called Purpose-Driven Life. Rick made somewhere over $50 million dollars on that book. I have never prayed that I could make Rick Warren kind of money because I don’t think God could trust me with Rick Warren kind of money. What I pray is that God knows exactly what I need so that I can stay faithful to God’s purpose.

In Matthew 6:22 we see Jesus moving on from treasures to our life focus. “The eye is the lamp of the body.” Literally, that means window. As I explained before, the old-fashioned oil lamps have the glass covering over it. The glass covering is the lamp part of the oil lamp. The verse continues, “If your eyes are healthy,” it’s saying if your life focus is healthy, “your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness.” What Jesus is talking about here is the focus of your life passion or your life desire. Desire is king. Whatever you focus on, whatever you truly desire in your life, you become. The word says as a person thinks within themselves, so they become. Your desire determines what you will be. It was amazing when I finally figured out what I wanted in life, what I truly desired. It wasn’t happiness, but faithfulness. It’s amazing how things changed. My marriage changed. For 20 years, I was unhappy with Carolyn because Carolyn didn’t know how to make me happy. But I realized it wasn’t happiness that was my heart’s desire, but faithfulness to be the man that God wanted me to be. To be a godly man. Isn’t it amazing when we figure out that our life focus isn’t the pursuit of happiness, but the pursuit of faithfulness? “Seek first the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

It’s important when we think about life focus to distinguish the difference between life interests, life passions or kingdom passions. I’ve had a lot of interests throughout my life. When I was a child, I collected baseball cards. I was passionate about baseball cards. When I became a man, I put away childish things. Do you remember how many years I saved for a motorcycle? I saved for a motorcycle for 10 years. I’d save $15 here or a $100 dollars there. Then came the day when I could go in and write a check for $22,000 for a Harley Davidson motorcycle. The first year, in a month, I put 2500 miles on it. In the second year, I put 2500 miles on it. I just rode it in August generally. The next 3 years I think I put 900 miles on it. You know the last time I had that motorcycle out of my garage? August 2, almost a year ago. You see, I have a lot of interests in my life, but interests change. Life passion, life focus is a constant. It stays the same.

Look at Matthew 6:33. Everything in chapter 6 hinges on Matthew 6:33. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness.” The Kingdom of God is the purpose of God, the presence of God, and the work of God on earth. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of this other stuff will be added to you as well.” We often invert the order; we pursue life interests that are changing instead of pursuing Kingdom passions, Kingdom’s desires. What I didn’t show you earlier when I showed you a picture of my couch, were the pictures above the couch. All over my house are pictures of Darfur, my son’s pictures of Darfur. You see my life passion portrays my life interest. My life interest is that some day I want to have a contemporary brown leather sofa. But my life passion supersedes my life interests. By the way, I have a motorcycle I’m willing to sell for $15,000 and I’ll give that $15,000 to Darfur. When Jesus was speaking to the man with many possessions, I think he meant when you have a bunch of stuff sitting around and can use it for another purpose, sell what you have, give to the poor, and then continue to come and follow me. That’s what it means to seek first the Kingdom of God the purpose of God, the presence of God, and the work of God on planet earth. We shouldn’t be attached to anything that we have in our life. We receive some things as gifts when God wants to surprise us, but we shouldn’t become attached to those things. We’re willing to hold those things with an open hand.

Jesus goes on, he keeps pressing us. It’s really easy when we try to be spiritual and he keeps making faith concrete. In Matthew 6:24 he quits preaching and goes to meddling. Now he wants to get into my money. “No one can serve two masters.” Whoa! Isn’t it our nature to want our cake and eat it too? We want it both ways. But you can’t have it both ways. Either you’ll hate the one and love the other or you’ll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. How you spend your money reveals your true life priorities. Spending money reveals your true faith, what or who you really trust. The Sermon on the Mount has been disturbing to me because it’s all based on the context of Matthew 5:20 Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness” (that means rightness), “exceeds that of the Pharisees and religious leaders, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of God.” The reason I struggle with this is because the religious leader, who Jesus said we have to exceed, were already tithing. Now what does tithe mean? Some people think it means give. The word literally means tenth.

The book of Matthew covers the five sermons of Jesus. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus says to the religious leaders, “You are so precise on giving that you even tithe the spices from your garden. Everything that comes into your possession that God gives us, you tithe.” Did you know we don’t earn wealth, that wealth comes from the hand of God? That’s what the word of God says. Some of us have been blessed. That blessing did not come from your hand. It comes from the hand of God. And, he says, “But you should not only have tithed, you should have given attention to the weightier matters of the law which are justice and mercy and faithfulness.” Justice, mercy, and faithfulness are about what we are doing to people. For some reason, poor people have a high priority with God. Remember in Luke 4 what Jesus said when he announced his mission? He said, “I have come to preach the good news to the poor. If it is not good news to the poor, it’s not good news, sisters and brothers. Jesus goes onto to say, “You should not have neglected justice, mercy and faithfulness.” In other words, the reason we give is not to build big cathedrals, worship centers and sanctuaries. So many times, Christians, give and spend all of this money on themselves and the church and we call it mission. That’s not mission; that’s self-care. However, I have been a little thankful for air conditioning these past weeks. The reason we give is to take the good news to the least, the lost and the oppressed.  God is going to hold us accountable for this as a community. It’s not about us. Jesus says, not only should you have done this, but you should not have neglected the tithe. That’s what Jesus says in Matthew 23:23-24. When Christians say that tithing is an old covenant principle, Jesus says, “No, you should have done justice, mercy and faithfulness without neglecting the tithe.”

Now here’s what’s so embarrassing to me. Christians do not even equal the tithe in Old Testament Judaism that we’re supposed to surpass. Do you know what the average amount of giving for an American Christian is today? It’s $200 per year. There are a whole lot more people who claim to be Christians than church-goers. Church-goers give an average of 2.6% of their income. But here is just what is so astounding to me. Only 6% of church-goers in America tithe. So folks, here’s what we’re saying. On one hand, we believe in God’s principles, but we place our faith in worldly, materialistic values. It’s oil and water! It does not mix!

I recently had a discussion with a brother, a young brother, 30 or so years old. He and his wife have a combined household income of six figures. He said, “Pastor, I’ve done the math. It does not make sense; it is not rational to tithe.” Well, God says it is. Who are you going to believe?

I want to show you another verse. Look at 2 Corinthians 9:6, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” It is just the law of creation. In every dimension of your life, there’s the law of sowing and reaping. The verse continues, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:8, “God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, in all times, having all you need, you will abound in every good work.”

As you know, I’m almost 59 years old. I’m self-employed, so the only retirement I’ll have is what I can save in a 401k. I don’t have a pension, and I’m not counting on Social Security.  I just received my report from my investments, and it’s not looking too good. You hear about the instability of the stock market and economy all of the time now. But guess what, my security is not in the stock market. My security is in the one who made the promise. The promise is that God is able to bless me abundantly in all things - not just spiritual things - and at all times. Does that mean even in downturns in the economy? That’s exactly what that means. We have all we need so that we can abound in every good work. That is the work of the Kingdom of God: to seek first the purpose of God, the presence of God, and the work of God on planet earth. Now notice what it says next. “As it is written they have scattered abroad their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” Again, God does not give us this money to go out and build some kind of sanctuary. We’ll never, at least in my term here, have a sanctuary. It’s powerful during the week when you see the little children playing in this room; it’s a playroom. On Monday night, you see our food pantry clients eating in this room and food being distributed. This is a warehouse for God’s purpose, to serve the Gospel into the world. But we are going to be held accountable for how we spend our money.

2 Corinthians 9 continues, “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.” Why will God enlarge this store of your seed? It is for his right works in the world! You will be made rich in every way. Does it say just spiritually I’m made rich? What does it say? It says in every way. This is the word of God, brother. I choose to base my life right here. I don’t want to deviate from this word right here. “You will be made rich in every way.” For what purpose? So that you can be generous on every occasion. “And through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”

Can I ask you to pray about something? Please write this down and pray for it on a daily basis until September 27^th. On September 27^th, Jim Taylor, Karen Smith, and I are flying to New York City. A church planting specialist from Africa is meeting us in New York City along with the heads of UMCOR (United Methodist Committee of Relief). Here’s what’s happening. In the last 6 years, God’s blessing through this congregation has impacted about a 250,000 people. We have 22,000 children in our schools today. About 83,000 people are eating, and 100,000+ folks are being supplied with clean water today. 22% of all the projects happening in Darfur right now are 100% dependent on Ginghamsburg. The great fear is if we stop in December, then as many as 80,000 lives will be immediately impacted. 80,000 people could go without food or water. There could be many deaths. For the first time after six years of working in Darfur, we get to plant our first church in South Sudan in 2011. Now hear me - much of the Sudan is a Muslim country. I mean no disrespect to Islam when I say this, but the world needs Jesus. Islam needs Jesus. Please hear me. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but right now, in the Muslim world, there are women on death row waiting to be stoned, because of adultery. Have you read about this? One woman has been pardoned because her son made such a big noise about it. But all of these women have already received 99 lashes in full view of their children. Now see, they’re receiving what the Old Testament says they deserve. But the One has come into the world and he looks at the dirtiest of us, even when we’re caught in the act of adultery, and he says these words - the heart of God. “I do not condemn you. Now let’s go and get well.”

So, without shame, I say the world needs Jesus. God promised to send rain of the Holy Spirit and we have, by faith, been preparing the ground to receive the rain for the last 6 years. This is no time to grow faint or weary, sisters and brothers. I’ve been praying about this. I believe in 2011, we can plant a church a year in Sudan. Wouldn’t that be exciting?  Who would have thought that when Americans left Vietnam, someone of that generation would be going to Ho-Chi-Mini City, preaching the Gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ? Vietnam Vets, it was not in vain. Please hear that. Vietnam Vets it was not in vain. So, I’ve been praying, Lord, how can we do this Sudan thing?

I think this is how the Holy Spirit works. Christmas in July, Christmas in July. I’ve been reading in the papers that retailers have been trying to give the economy a shot in the arm by advertising Christmas in July. I wonder what would happen if 1,000 of us made the commitment to come up with $1,000 by Christmas, starting Christmas in July. You may think it’s not rational, but God says it is. So would you look at the insert we put in the bulletin. It’s like a Christmas Club contribution plan. From now to Christmas, saving just $45.50 per week would result in $1,000. Pastor Dave Hood came up to me this week, and he said, “Mike, you know I’ve figured out that we’re going to give the employees of Ginghamsburg 11 paychecks checks between now and Christmas. If I just saved $100 a check for the Sudan, above the tithe, we could have $1,000.” I know there are some of you in this room that are living on very little, maybe $1,000 a month total. I remember people who held garage sales and raised $1,300 for the Sudan. I remember one woman, a sister in the Church, who cleaned houses. She cleaned houses at night for the Sudan and came up with $1,300. Can you imagine if 1,000 of us brought $1,000 for this project in Darfur, by Christmas, we would have $1,000,000? Not only would we be sustaining all of the programs for the people who depend on us in Darfur, we would plant our first church in 2011. Is that not exciting? All we need to do is trust the promise of the Lord. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and then he’ll surprise us with all these other things.

Will you bow your heads with me in prayer to thank God? Just take time silently, to thank God for as many things, specifically as you can, that he’s already blessed you with.

Lord, we give You thanks and praise for this day. We thank You for the gift of rain. We also thank You today for the opportunity to witness people making a commitment to Jesus for the first time or renewing that commitment today in baptism. We give You thanks as we make our offerings in Jesus’ name. Amen