Rooted in Abundance | Rev. Paul Lawler

Could having more actually make it harder to trust God? Abundance brings its own spiritual dangers, but when we remember that everything we have comes from God, generosity becomes more than an obligation; instead, it becomes an act of gratitude, trust, and worship.

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Our first scripture reading this morning comes from Psalm twenty-four, verse one. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. This is the word of God for the people of God. Our second scripture this morning comes from the book of Deuteronomy, chapter eight, beginning with verse six. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper, and you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Take care, lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you do is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you to do you good in the end. Beware, lest you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers as it is this day. This is the word of God for the people of God.

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Amen and amen. I greet you this morning in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My name is Paul Lawler. I have the honor of serving as a senior pastor of Christ Methodists. We welcome you today, whether you're a regular member, a tender, or a first-time guest. Delighted that you're here. So, church family, I want to talk to you on the topic this morning, titled It Rooted in Abundance. I hope that that will make sense as we journey forward. We start a three-week series on stewardship this morning, and we're going to spend these weeks talking about what stereotypically people don't want to hear about in church. So I want to comfort you with those words. And that is, we're going to talk about the topic of money. And I want to begin by affirming that God is not primarily interested in getting something out of your wallet. He's much more interested in getting something significant into your heart. And so I'm mindful as we navigate a topic like this, and the theme of Deuteronomy begins to come at us with a certain degree of velocity, and I say that because God's word is living. When we planted a church in Huntsville, Alabama, I have shared with you before that in the early days of that church plant, by government standards, Missy and I, and at that time just our two boys, were living below the poverty line. Yet we tithed and gave to missions and honored God from the heart. We never missed a mill. We never lacked for anything that we needed. Every bill was paid. And I don't have time this morning to get into all the intricacies of God's infinite creativity of how He provided for us. But as we labored in the years to come, God blessed those efforts and established a church. The church began to grow. We bought property, moved on to land. The church then on its property began to grow somewhat exponentially. People coming from around the city. And many of you are aware, Huntsville has some unique characteristics. Highest number per capita of PhDs in the Southeast, also the highest median income in the Southeast. And so as the church began to grow, our salary began to get larger. And during those years, my stepfather and then some years later my mom went to be with the Lord and there was inheritance to manage. And this gets into the theme of Deuteronomy. I found that when I had little, there were very few temptations in terms of compromising, honoring God with the tithe, and even going second mile and honoring and supporting missionaries that are sharing the gospel around the earth. But I found that when I began to have more to steward, that this was the land of greater temptations to compromise what we see as biblical principles that are rooted in God's love for you and me. And so as we journey through this this morning, I want to remind you, because this is not your first rodeo on this topic. You've heard stewardship series for years if you've been an active member at Christ Church. You're aware that it has been affirmed from this pulpit, not only under the opportunity I've had to serve here, but through the years with your legacy of great senior leadership. You're aware this is really a lordship issue, a trust and faith issue, a gratitude issue. And it's not a question of whether we really believe that God is the source of everything that we have. It's deeper than that because as Amber, our young adult minister, read a moment ago from Psalm 24.1, the scripture tells us that there is a foundation that a believer operates from. Psalm 24.1, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Which, loved ones, I'm gonna ask, don't answer out loud. This is a rhetorical question. What I want to ask you, as a believer, do you believe the Bible? Because if that's true, everything belongs to God. If that is true, the house belongs to God, the car belongs to God, the bank account belongs to God, the paycheck, the talent, the strength you have in your body, and the next breath of air you're about to take in in this sanctuary. Everything is a gift from God. And before you ever gave God one dollar, perhaps in childhood, God gave you everything that you have. So I have five areas I want us to examine together this morning. And the first area, based upon Deuteronomy 8, is this let us all remember who gave you what you have. Because Moses is speaking to Israel in the text that Amber read a moment ago as God's people are about to enter the promised land. They've been wandering through the wilderness for years. They've known hunger, they've known thirst, they've known uncertainty, they've known what it means to wake up in the morning and wonder where the next meal is coming from. In other words, they know what it's like to live below the poverty line. But now Moses says, in effect, God's people, you're about to enter a land of abundance. Now look at verse 7 if you have your Bible with you. Verse 7 says, For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs flowing out in the valleys and the hills. And then in those next verses, God begins to describe the details through Moses. Not only is it a land of fresh drinking water, fountains of water, springs, it is a land of great abundance. Wheat, barley, fruit-bearing vines, pomegranates, fig trees, olive oil, honey, everything, not only to sustain life, but to prosper in life. You may even remember when the text was read a land of silver and gold, a land where men and women, God's people, will eat bread without scarcity, a land where they will not lack anything. Now, you might have missed it, you might not have, but notice what Moses does. He doesn't merely warn them about poverty. He warns them, on the other hand, about prosperity. Pay attention to that, loved one. Because sometimes it's easier to trust God when we don't have anything than when you have everything. Sometimes the wilderness makes us pray, but the promised land will make us forget. That's why we go to verse 10, and Moses, as he's inspired by God, writes this and you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good of the land he has given you. And then we get sobered up because there's verse 11. Now I want to remind you before I read this God cannot exaggerate. He can't. And so what God does here is he says to people who are experiencing prosperity, what they every need is met. Here's what he says beware. Beware that you do not forget the Lord thy God. Now I know you heard that. Beware that you don't forget, because abundance can create spiritual amnesia. And so we start remembering the paycheck, but we forget the provider. We start remembering the promotion, but we forget the one who gave us the ability to work. We remember the harvest, but we forget the one who first created the seed. It's not unlike a father who takes his little boy fishing for the first time. The father provides the boat, the father provides the fishing rods, the father buys the bait, he buys the fishing license, he packs the lunch, the father knows exactly where the fish are. And after several hours, the little boy catches the biggest fish of his young life. He is so excited and he exclaims, Well, look at what I did. And the father smiles because the father knows the truth. The boy caught the fish, but the father provided almost everything necessary that made it possible for the boy to catch it. And sometimes we do the exact same thing with God. We go, look at what I built, look at what I earned, look at what I accomplished, look at what I bought, look at what I have. And God lovingly reminds us, my child, where did you get the ability to do any of it? And Deuteronomy 8.18 answers that question. Look with me, verse 18. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth. And what God's declaring over your life this morning is this remember me. The paycheck didn't give you your ability, the economy didn't give you your ability. Your employer didn't give you your ability. Your education didn't even ultimately give you your ability. That came from God. God did it. And the moment we understand that, loved ones, this fuels giving as an act of worship. Which is one of the reasons we've begun bringing the plates forward again to help remind the body of Christ that giving is not to meet a church budget, it is an act of adoring the living God. Remember who gave you what you have. Secondly, abundance, according to the scripture, begins with God. Not us, but with God. Psalm 24, one. The verse doesn't say some of the earth belongs to God. It says the earth is the Lord's. And then it says the fullness thereof. That's why we sang some of the special hymns that we've already worshiped God with this morning. I'm pointing this way because the words were on the screen. And so the fullness thereof, everything in it, everything. And that informs us in a way because there's a tremendous difference between saying, God, you get 10% and saying God owns 100%. Everything belongs to God. Tithing is a pattern of honoring God first, kind of the pattern of what we see in Scripture of first fruits. Tithing is not primarily determining what belongs to God. Everything belongs to God already. Tithing is a biblical way of acknowledging that reality. Tithing is a way of acknowledging that we don't forget that it's all God's. Lord, everything I have came from you, and I will honor you, you with the first portion. It's not buying God's favor, it's not bribing God. It's not some kind of the way teaching sometimes is manipulated by some TV preachers. It's not some kind of spiritual investment scheme where you give 10% and get back 100%. In fact, the Bible does say when God's honored, he will meet all your needs. It doesn't say you'll drive a bins. It just says you he will meet all your needs. And biblical giving begins with the confession, Lord, you're the owner, and I'm a steward. And there's a great difference between being an owner versus a steward. An owner says, it's mine. A steward says, it's entrusted to me. So imagine this for a moment. Imagine this morning that you are gifted with the opportunity of managing a $1 billion hedge fund. Well, you might be signing checks, you might be paying bills, you might be making investments, you might be deciding where some of the money goes as it's moved around. But at the end of the day, you would know this isn't mine. This has been entrusted to me, to steward. And that's exactly what the scriptures say about how we should view everything that God places in our hands. Your resources are not merely possessions. Church, if you hear me say anything this morning, hear this. Here it is. They're assignments. They're assignments. When you became a Christian, you confessed Jesus Christ is Lord of your life. And what that means is your money has a mission. That means your home has a mission. Your influence has a mission. Your time has a mission. Your abilities have a mission. Your life has a mission. And one day the question will not simply be, how much did you accumulate? But the question from Jesus will be, what did you do with what I entrusted to you? And so abundance begins with God, because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and not us. Thirdly, God wants you and me, us, rooted in his lordship and not led by anxiousness. Now let me explain that. Because oftentimes when we get to topics like this, in the human heart, anxiousness will rule over being rooted. Now let me I'll let me again expound. I had a grandmother, grandmother Bramlett, on my mom's side. She's a very unusual lady. She's about five foot tall, very short, feisty. Missy would go shopping with her at the mall, and she would come back winded, saying, I can't keep up with your grandmother. She walks very fast. When I was 14, I would invite friends over. You know, when I knew my grandmother was there. She's a very intelligent woman, but very unusual, feisty personality. And my 14-year-old friends would go, Why have you invited me over? And I would say, I want you to arm wrestle my grandmother. She says, There's that kind of toughness and uniqueness and kind of ahead of her time in so many ways. But she would tell me these stories about history, and she would tell me about World War II when they're rationing things. And you didn't have enough salt, you didn't have enough sugar, and her husband is in the theater going into Germany, and her brother is a paratrooper landing behind enemy lines. And if it were ever a period of time to be anxious, it was a period of time to have anxiousness. And yet she shared how she honored the Lord all through that all through World War II and beyond, by tithing and giving and keeping Jesus on the pinnacle of her heart from her heart. She didn't allow anxiousness to overrule her rootedness. And we always can make excuses around anxiousness. People worry about inflation. We worry about retirement. We worry about medical expenses. We worry about college expenses. We worry about mortgages and interest rates. And people worry, will there be enough? But that's where fear whispers into your ear. Remember, perfect love casts out fear. Because fear says, hold on tighter, but faith says, trust God deeper. Fear, when it lies to you, says, I will give if, but uh, but if I give, I won't have enough. But faith says, God reigns on his throne, and God is my provider, and God will meet all our needs. Fear says, I've got to protect everything that I have. Faith says everything I have is already God's. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Fear causes a man or a woman to clench their fists. Faith teaches us to have open hands before a living God because he reigns and there's no fear in him, and he's going to take care of his children. That's why I like the picture to use an earthly metaphor of being rooted. A tree does not survive because it has a good-looking trunk. A tree survives because it has good and healthy roots. You can look at a tree in the middle of a storm, and it might be swaying to and fro in the wind, looking as if it, as it's moving violently, will it survive? But underneath the ground, something else is happening. The roots are holding. The storm is testing the tree and determining whether or not the tree will stand. And loved ones, that is a picture of our lives, of putting down roots in what's eternal and what's true. You know, some of us, it's possible, have been trying to survive life storms by strengthening our branches. We're trying to make more money, we're trying to control more circumstances, we're trying to build bigger savings, we're trying to accumulate more possessions. And I'm not, listen, don't misunderstand that. I'm not saying that all of that is inherently wrong. But they cannot become your root system. Church family, may I give you a kingdom axiom? I'm going to anyway, but I'm just checking on you. Here it is. Can we put on the screen? Money makes a terrible root. Anything you don't already know, money can disappear. Markets fluctuate. Remember 2008? You studied history, Great Depression, jobs change, cars break, houses need repairs, bodies age, circumstances change. But what my grandmother was reminding all of us of is this God does not change. God doesn't change. He's faithful no matter what circumstances are stirring around you. And he is faithful to remind us that prosperity can blind us. It happened to the Israelites. And as I've often said, if it can happen to them, it can happen to me. If it can happen to them, it can happen to you. If it can happen to them, it could happen to us. But the the realness of being rooted is what the Apostle Paul knew when he was locked up in a prison cell. And he says, I've learned to put my roots down in Christ and know joy and peace in the Lord no matter what the circumstances, in abundance or in lack. His security wasn't rooted in his money or circumstances. His security was rooted in Jesus Christ. And that's what God wants for you. Out of love for you, please understand. I know you do. I know most of you do. God is not a tyrannical taskmaster. I know most of you understand that. But these themes are there in Scripture because God loves you. And He wants your security to be in your first love of what He's done, who He is and what He's done for you. And so God wants us rooted in Him, not anxious in our circumstance. And that is to know freedom from the illusion that money is our ultimate security or root. But it's Christ. Fourth, tithing teaches us to put God first. One of the great biblical principles I referred to a moment ago is honoring God with first fruits. I've shared with you that I've been in many parts of the world, some of you, some of you have as well, where it's time to bring tithes and offerings as a part of the worship service. And they're bartering cultures. This is particularly true in rural India. And you'll watch people get up and bring bags of rice or different produce to the front because it's not a money or it's not a currency culture in parts of rural India. But what they're doing is bringing 10% first fruits of their crops to honor the Lord for it to be sold, to be provision in God's house. And so that really what that's coming out of, even for these Christians in challenging parts of the world, is that they understand this pattern taught in Scripture and that they understand there's a difference between saying, God, I'll give you what's left versus saying, God, I will honor you first. So when you get up in the morning, you always have a choice. You can you always can get up in the morning, throw your clothes on, and be out the door in five minutes and be at the office or wherever you've got to go. But I think most of you have walked with the Lord long enough to know that it's much healthier to slow down, not only do whatever's in your regular morning routine, breakfast, shower, etc., but if you're able to slow down and spend some time with the Lord first before you begin your day, before you face the world. And the same principle applies to our finances. If we wait to the end to give, oftentimes nothing will be left because something always crops up. There's always another bill, another repair, another vacation we're planning, another purchase, another upgrade, another emergency, another desire. And if we're giving God what's left over after our plan, we'll often discover that the leftovers are disappearing. And that's why giving first is an act of intentional worship. We don't give because we have extra. We give because God comes first. It's just like a farmer. He has bags of seed that are edible. And he could he could spend the year, he and his family, eating all the seed that's edible. But what he does is he puts back a certain section of the seed first to plant the following year so that it is sustainable. And this is one of the great mysteries of biblical generosity. Sometimes what leaves your hand is being planted for God's eternal purposes. And God is not about making or giving is not about making God richer. God doesn't need our money, but what happens is God changes us, and God uses us as we have open hands before the Lord. And it also reminds us that we're stewards, not owners, and it breaks the power of materialism so that we don't make the money our security, and it strengthens our trust and our faith in the Lord, and it empowers resources for ministry and it allows what God has placed in our hands to be a part of something much bigger. And then finally, generosity is a response to the grace that's been revealed through the person of Jesus Christ. Because, loved ones, the greatest reason we give isn't because the church needs money. The greatest reason we give is because God has given us his grace. God has given us his mercy through his gospel, through what God has done in Christ. God did not give you leftovers. God gave you his son. And Jesus Christ did not come to earth because humanity had earned him. He came and gave himself for you. At Calvary, Jesus didn't hold anything back. At Calvary, Jesus gave you his body. Jesus gave you his blood. Jesus gave you his life. And when you stand beneath the cross, you cannot honestly say, Oh God, I've given you so much. Loved ones, you were lost and he gave you salvation. You were under judgment and wrath, according to Ephesians chapter two. But because of God's grace in Jesus Christ, when you put your faith in him, you have been delivered from God's wrath and judgment. Some people think that's just Old Testament. But have you read the book of Revelation? You were separated. He gave you out of love for you reconciliation in Jesus. You were spiritually dead, according to Ephesians 2, dead in your trespasses and sins, but he has given you new life in Jesus Christ. You had no way back to God, but Jesus Christ has made a way. And so what that tells us, loved one, Christian giving is never supposed to be God, look how generous I am. Instead, it's God. Look at how grateful I am. And there's a world of difference. Because giving reveals what has our heart. You're all aware, you've been in church, most of you, the majority of you, you're all aware that Jesus talked about money frequently. Frequently. And the question is why? Because money has a remarkable ability to reveal what's most important in our lives. Jesus knows we can say with our lips, God is first, but Jesus knows our calendars can tell a different story, our Venmo account can tell a different story, our checking account can tell a different story. Our bank statements can tell a different story. Our spending habits can tell a different story. Our generosity can tell a different story. Now let's be clear as we wrap up. Your pastor is not saying it, standing in the pulpit saying money is evil. It's not evil. It's not, it's, as you may remember, what the Bible says, the love of money can be the root of all kinds of evil. But money itself is not evil, but it become it can become a master. And what God is after is your heart. And let us remember that the theme of Deuteronomy 8 is that in poverty there can be a great reliance upon the Lord, and poverty can help fuel it. But Jesus says, it's nothing wrong with prosperity, that's not what he says. But he says to us, beware in prosperity. He says in Deuteronomy 8.10 that when he took the people, his people, into a land of prosperity, you shall eat and be full, you shall bless the Lord God for the good land he has given you. Which tells us that when we experience the blessings of God, it should fuel worship. But he also tells us in Deuteronomy 8.11, beware that you do not forget the Lord thy God. In the name of the Father who loves you, in the name of the Son who demonstrates the Father's love, in the name of the Holy Spirit, who fills you and empowers you to live for his glory. Amen. Let's pray. So, Lord, I'm mindful of what the Bible tells us about worship. And I'm going to go to one of those places in prayer in Romans 12, 1 and 2, where the scripture describes our worship as a living sacrifice. And we confess, God, that there are times where we surrender our lives to you on an altar, but we confess that there are times we crawl off the altar. And so we pray that you would work your will and your good pleasure in our lives. And let us, as followers of Jesus, continue to grow in our first love of you. And as our first love, cultivate patterns in our heart whereby we're not deceived by prosperity, but we worship in it and we honor you in it for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.