Money Scan Luke 18:18-30 Big Idea: God desires the single worship of our hearts Purpose: to challenge the idol of money Prayer: Father You have blessed me with money. You have burdened me with money. My wicked heart is drawn to comfort and pleasure rather than to you. Take from me the love of wealth, And give me a heart radically turned towards you, Deeply in love with you, With eyes for you alone. Amen Well let s begin today by thinking about our birth days, not your birthday but your birth 1
day. Mine was the 14 th October 1966 50 years ago now that is starting to be a long time ago now. In October 1966 the Vietnam war was in full swing, Lesotho became an independent nation, the Beach Boys released their hit song good vibrations, and the Montreal underground was opened well that was my birth month you can look up what happened in yours all those years ago Now as you contemplate your birth day I want you to imagine that in the week before you were born you were invited to appear before God and you were offered a choice. Imagine God taking you aside and saying to you, You are going on this adventure, you are about to be born and I would like to offer you a choice as to what your life will look like you can either live in Bishopscourt, in a life of luxury, you can have a trust fund, the best private schools and financial prosperity; 2
or you can live in Khayelitsha - Site B, home will be a shack, toilets will be down the road, meals will be scarce and money a constant struggle. That is your choice. Well which would you choose? Now I don t think there is a person alive that would choose the life of poverty and struggle ahead of the life of luxury and pleasure is there anyone here that would like to give up their Claremont mansion and move to Khayelitsha? There are many in Khayelitsha that would be willing to take you up on it if you want to make the swop. Of course having money is better than not having money isn t it? Now today we listen in on a conversation between Jesus and a wealthy young man. It is in Luke 18 verse 18. It is a fascinating conversation but it is also a disturbing 3
conversation. We know nothing about this man except that he was young, rich and Jewish. And he comes to Jesus confident in himself and confident in his wealth money does that to us it makes us confident. He asks Jesus v18, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? It is a great question to consider perhaps the most important question ever - at some point in your life you will need to think about it because death is soon and death is successful - 100% successful. And death does not discriminate both rich and poor die; and so it really is worth thinking about eternal life and how we can get it. But as soon as you ask the question you will find that there are lots of answers diametrically opposite answers, often connected with money, often connected with good deeds and 4
sometimes connected to allegiance with a religious organisation but which to choose? Now as this man asks Jesus his question, What must I do to inherit eternal life? what do you think he was expecting Jesus to say? I think he was expecting Jesus to say, Nothing you don t have to do anything you have got it all. You are in. I think he thought he was in. I don t meet many people who think they are going to hell. Pretty much everyone I meet thinks that God draws the line below them and especially if you are financially well off. We all think of wealth as the blessing of God. People always speak about like in this way, God blessed me this year I got a large bonus or I got an increase. God was smiling on me this week I won the lotto. 5
And I am just the same, when someone puts a big donation into the church bank account I get a kind of a euphoric rush and pray, Thank you God for blessing us. And certainly in Jesus day people considered financial blessing as a sure sign that God was pleased with you and so this man was thinking that Jesus would say, You are okay young man, stay as you are and you will certainly inherit eternal life. But Jesus doesn t say that instead Jesus points him to the Ten Commandments. There they are up on the wall. V20, Jesus says, You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony that is don t lie, honour your father and your mother. Jesus says, You know them, now keep them. Well that is a tremendous relief to the young man. In fact, he is elated because he does know the commandments and he has kept 6
them since he was young. What a relief he thinks in his heart, I have been faithful to my wife. I haven t murdered anyone. I don t steal or lie and I have cared for my aged parents. I am okay V21 All these I have kept since I was a boy, he replies. He is expecting Jesus to commend him, expecting Jesus to assure him that eternal life is certain. That is exactly how our world thinks about God we visualise God as a slightly distant cosmic policeman, hiding behind a bush with his radar gun monitoring your speed to see whether you obey the speed limit. And if you are good and if you are careful and if you know what is required then everything will be alright 7
Don t sleep around, don t kill anyone, don t steal, don t lie and look after your parents we can do that But God is not a cosmic policeman and so at this point Jesus turns the scanner onto the young man s heart. He performs open heart surgery. He shines a light deep into the young man s values v22 Jesus said to him, You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me Well before we unpack that just imagine Jesus saying the same thing to you today You wanna get to heaven, you wanna have eternal life, give away all your money, sell all your possessions, give away everything you have to the poor then come and follow me. 8
Wow Now, why would Jesus say that? Is this how heaven works? Is poverty the key to heaven? If that is the case, we are in big trouble because we are not poor. We are rich here today. Now in order to understand what Jesus is doing here we must just back pedal a bit. Did you notice that in Jesus first reply in v20 when he called the man to the Ten Commandments he only referred to some of them. The ones Jesus pointed him to have been called by scholars the second table of the law they are the 6 commandments that refer to our duty to each other but there are ten commandments. What about the first 4 commandments? 9
Remember them you shall have no other gods before me, you shall not make for yourself an idol, you shall not misuse the name of the Lord, observe the Sabbath. What about them? Now it is my contention that having dealt with the 6 commandments about people; Jesus now turns the man towards God. When Jesus says Sell all your possessions, give to the poor and come follow me he is saying to the man, You shall have no other gods but God And so when Jesus calls the young man to radical financial surgery he is scanning the man s heart and asking him to consider who is the worship of his heart. Jesus is pushing this man to consider who or what does he actually love? 10
Well let s take a moment to dream about heaven. Let s take a moment to dream about the eternal life that the man asks about Australian aborigines pictured heaven as a distant island beyond the horizon. The Mexicans, Peruvians and Polynesians thought heaven was in the sun or in the moon. The Romans believed that the righteous would picnic in the Elysian fields while their horses grazed nearby how do you visualise heaven? Clifton beachfront mansion - with a robot that automatically mows the lawn and another to wash your dishes? Perhaps you picture heaven as an idyllic eternal holiday in Mauritius? Or a life of pleasure without stress or want? Perhaps eternal Bliss and peace and tranquillity (man)? Perhaps you visualise heaven as fluffy clouds and harps and halos and St Peter at the gate dressed in a white robe 11
Well when the Bible takes us to images of heaven - it takes us to God. At its core heaven is to be physically with God. When we open the book of Revelation we find that heaven has a throne at its centre and that on that throne is the lion/lamb. Heaven is to be around that throne with God. Eternal life is to be with Jesus the physical man forever. As Jesus hangs on that cross he says to the thief, Today you will be with me in paradise Heaven is not about what we will get or about what we will have but about who we will be with. Heaven is relationship with God And so what Jesus does is to point this young man away from the love of his heart to the God of heaven. When Jesus calls the young man to sell his possessions, to give the money 12
away and to follow Jesus he is calling the young man to consider who is the worship of his heart. Who is the love of your heart? He is calling the young man to come and follow him; to hang out with him; to enter into relationship with him; to spend eternity with him And so now we have the answer to the question about eternal life. The way to get eternal life is to love God and his son Jesus. Heaven is never about rules, nor about religious observance, nor about good deeds, nor about sincerity it is fundamentally this do you want to be with God? Well let me go where angels fear to tread. Hands up if you love dogs if you are a dog 13
person. Hands up if you love cats - if you are a cat person Last year a BBC2 documentary called "Cats v. Dogs", investigated which species actually prefers humans. Dr Paul Zak, conducted the study by checking the level of oxytocin in cats and dogs after they played with their owners. Oxytocin is the hormone released in our brains when we care about someone. For example, when we see our spouse or children typically the levels in our bloodstream rise by 40-60 per cent. Dr Zak took saliva samples from 10 cats and 10 dogs - 10 minutes before a playtime session with their owners and immediately after. The results showed that the hormone increased by an average of 57.2 per cent in dogs but only by 12 per cent in cats which 14
means in theory that dogs love their humans more than cats do. But we know that anyway when you come home from work your dog will just about fall over himself with delight and your cat will give you the hairy eyeball until they are ready to eat your dog wants to be with you no matter what and your cat wants to be with you when you are useful God wants us to be like a dog - to want him. I want the same thing from my kids. I don t want them to love me for what I can give them. I want them to love me Well, the young man went away sad because he didn t love God, he loved his money, he loved his possessions, he loved his holiday home, he loved his iphone, he loved his portfolio, he loved the confidence that 15
wealth brought him he didn t love God and he didn t love Jesus And as a result he lost eternal life he went to hell And that is what being rich can do to us. It subtly draws us away from God. That is the power of money. It subtly like a cancer invades our hearts until we love it more than God. That is why generally poor people go to church more than rich people do. That is why Western Europe has abandoned the gospel but Africa has embraced it. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God Now we are rich might this happen to us? Yes! Are we in danger? Yes! 16
What we need is for God to not only scan our hearts but to perform radical surgery on them so that now instead of loving our stuff we love him Do you love your money? Do you love your stuff? Could you give it away? Have you given it away? You know you will give it away - soon. We can t take it with us unless we give it away. And you know you just don t need it when you are attached to the God who owns everything God is not after your money. Ministry needs money but God is not after it. God is after our hearts. God is after our love. And the key to eternal life is loving of God. You know that if you have spent your life running away from God, if you have spent 17
your life not loving him, you can change that right now. You can tell him that you don t love him but that you want to and as you turn your heart towards him then he will give you eternal life And then for us who call ourselves Christians here today, let s dig down deep and examine the love of our hearts. Let s look deep for the idols we see there. Perhaps it is time to start a fight with your money. Perhaps you need to give some money away as a test to see how much you love it how much it hurts perhaps you need to give a lot of money to see what it is doing to your heart. Perhaps it is time to start giving some of your assets away some shoes, some clothes, some spare furniture to the poor to missions to the church to the person who has worked for you for so many years grow your love for God don t let 18
money or some other idol seduce you into hell Now just quickly as we close look at what happens next. V28-30 God promises us that when we turn to him in love he who owns everything will bless us in the age to come with absolutely everything homes and families and eternal life. What a thought exchange things that I can only use for 70 years for things that I can have for eternity I want to leave you today to consider what is the love of your heart. You will think often about the things you love. You will plan and plot and scheme and work for the things you 19
love. But they are all temporary and behind everything in this world there is God, holding out his hands - blood stained, feet washing, crucified hands; there is a God who says to you, I love you and all I want is for you to love me too. 20