How To Get Poor Quick
June 28, 2009
7Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. 8I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. 9For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. 10And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— 11now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. 12For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have. 13I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between 14your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. 15As it is written, “The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.”
II Corinthians 8:7-15
The last few weeks I’ve been talking about doing a lot with a little. I talked about the mustard seed, and how the kingdom of God starts out surprisingly small before growing like a weed. I talked about David and Goliath, and how we are often tempted to conform to the wrong thing instead of trusting in God. But no series of sermons about doing a lot with a little would be complete unless I preached at least once about money.
So, guess what you’re going to hear today? You know, in the past, I have been very reluctant to talk about money from the pulpit. And that is because, like most of you, I find the topic to be uncomfortable. It raises all sorts of questions and issues I’d prefer not to think about. And some of you may even think that in a time when our nation is undergoing economic distress, to preach a sermon entitled “how to get poor quick” shows a certain lack of sensitivity on my part.
So, first let me say this morning that it is not my intention to make light of the very real suffering and hardship that many people around our nation and around our world, have experienced as a result of poverty. I am aware that this is a touchy subject and that it deeply affects folks in our own community, which is why we will be focusing on this subject during Sunday School for the entire month of July.
But I will also say, that when we don’t talk about money in the church, I think we do ourselves a great disservice. Because as a pastor, I’ve noticed that the things we want to talk about the least are usually the things we need to talk about the most. And it’s curious, because by not talking about money, I believe we actually make it more powerful than it really is. It’s kind of like death—when we refuse to acknowledge the reality of death, we give it a power in our lives and an importance that it really shouldn’t have for us as Christians. It’s the same thing with money—when we don’t talk about money in the church, I believe it actually has more of a hold on us than if we were just open and honest about things. So, this morning, I am going to try and be as open and honest about money as I possibly can.
And I’m going to try and take my cue from the apostle Paul who, here in this passage of Scripture, is encouraging the church at Corinth to give generously. The project at the time was an offering that was being collected on behalf of the saints in Jerusalem. But the details are less important to us than Paul’s underlying philosophy about money. He suggests in verses 12-15 that we need to strike a fair balance between the needs of others and our own abundance. And most importantly, we are to give according to what we have, not according to what we don’t have. Paul says that if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable.
The bad news is that by those standards, most of us in here don’t measure up very well. Because usually when I talk about giving money to the church, I start hearing from a lot of people who say they don’t have any money to give. Maybe that’s true. But I’m not convinced. Christian Smith and Michael Emerson recently wrote a great book entitled Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don’t Give Away More Money. And after years of research and analysis, one of the conclusions they reach is that American Christians are far and away the wealthiest group of Christians anywhere in the world. They estimate that if only half of the nation’s Christians, the ones who are the most committed and who come to church fairly regularly, gave 10% of their after-tax income to the church, that amount would total over 85 billion dollars. 85 billion dollars. And that’s not taking into account any gifts by non-regular church-goers.
So, the idea that we don’t have any money is ridiculous. In fact, even though giving to the church by American Christians has significantly declined over the last 50 years, during that same time, the personal consumption expenditures of Americans skyrocketed. In the year 2005, Americans spent $27.9 billion on candy, $92.9 billion on soda and bottled water, $59.4 billion buying jewelry and watches, $88.7 billion on domestic travel and tourism, $24.1 billion on DVDs, and more than $100 billion a year on fast food. Between 1978 and 2005, the average square footage of new single family houses in the United States rose from 1,750 to 2,414—a 40% increase in 27 years.
So, the question is not whether we have enough money, but what we are doing with the money we do have. And in their book, Smith and Emerson show just how little of our money we’re actually giving to the church. Their statistics indicate that at least one out of five American Christians gives literally nothing to the church or to any other charity, for that matter. I’m talking not even one dollar. 20%. They also discovered that the average percentage of pre-tax income given by American Christians to the church is 2.9%. That’s a little bit less than a tithe, isn’t it? Smith and Emerson found that almost 60% of the dollars given to the church come from only 5% of the givers. That’s quite a gap. It means that 1 out of every 5 of us in this room gives nothing to the church, and that the majority of us give less than 3% of our income. It means we’re only surviving financially because of a few folks who give over and above the rest of us.
You may say, “Well, preacher, these statistics don’t apply to us. Our particularly church isn’t that wealthy. And if I had a lot of money, I would give it to the church.” Well, maybe you would. But if so, you would be in the minority. Because here’s another interesting thing that Smith and Emerson discovered—they found that the more money a person has, the less likely they are to give to the church. As income increases, giving to the church actually decreases. Isn’t that interesting? The poorest people are the ones who give the most to the church. In theory, we like to believe that we would give more if we had more to give. But the statistics show that the more we have, the less likely we are to give to the church.
How’s that for being open and honest? I know it’s a lot of numbers to throw at you, but all those statistics lead to one conclusion: that although most of us in here are much better off now than we ever have been before, we are not giving nearly as much to the church as we could. That’s the bottom line. We can try to pretty it up and make excuses all we want, but the numbers don’t lie. If we are still using the tithe as a standard of giving, and by the way, I think we should, then most of us in here fall woefully short.
And that brings me to the real issue I want to discuss this morning. Leaving aside for a moment the question of whether or not we really do have more money to give, I want to return to what Paul says here in 2nd Corinthians. Paul tells the church that we are not supposed to give according to what we don’t have, but according to what we do have. That means it’s completely irrelevant whether or not we think we have enough to give. Because we’re not supposed to be focusing on what we don’t have. We’re supposed to focus on what we do have.
And Paul makes a beautiful connection between that kind of generosity and what God did for us in the person of Jesus Christ. In verse 9, Paul says that although Jesus was rich, he became poor for our sakes. Now, that statement requires a little bit of explanation because most of us in here grew up under the belief that Jesus was not a wealthy man. And as best we discover from the historical record, he wasn’t. According to the Bible, Jesus traveled from town to town and lived off the generosity of others.
So, Paul must be talking about something other than money when he refers to Jesus being rich. And I think that something is the way that Jesus gave of himself. I think that Paul is trying to help us understand that although Jesus had everything, that although all authority in heaven and on earth, he gave it up for us. And by using the example of Christ, Paul is calling us in the church to that same kind of sacrificial giving.
What a message. Paul’s words stand as a challenge to those of us today who don’t think we have enough to give. Paul says—“You gotta be kidding me. You’re going to whine about giving 10% of your income when Jesus gave his entire life for you?” You see, our perspective is skewed. We have allowed money to become such an idol in our lives that we are no longer capable of the same kind of giving that Paul writes about here in this passage of Scripture.
Billy Graham once said that “a checkbook is a theological document, it will tell you who and what you worship.” I think Billy Graham was right. Many of us in here claim that money is not that important to us. But if that’s true, then how come we worry about money so much? Overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, the single most common remark I have heard about our intended renovation project is—“How we gonna pay for it?” Now, you tell me—If money is not the most important thing, then why is that always our first question? If we say that money doesn’t really control our lives, then why would we suggest that money is the most significant reason to proceed or not to proceed with this renovation? I have actually heard folks say that if we had a million dollars in the bank, or however much it is that this is going to cost us, that we should go ahead and start tomorrow. Because in their minds, the money the only thing that’s holding us up. And that’s the only reason to do it or not to do it.
I disagree. There may be legitimate reasons not to do this renovation, but in mind, money isn’t one of them. And what this anxiety tells me is that we have given money a power over us that it should not have. If our only objection to this renovation project is the money, I think we’ve missed something important. I think we’ve missed out on the idea of generosity that Paul is trying to convey in this passage. Let me say it again this morning—Money may an important thing. But it is not the most important thing. And it is time we stopped just saying that and we started acting like it. It is time for us to stop allowing our fear of not having enough money to stand in the way of the work that God has called us to do.
I’m not naïve. I know that things are difficult financially for a lot of folks right now. But Paul says it doesn’t have to be a choice between us or the church. Paul tells us to strike a fair balance between our own abundance and the needs of the community. The problem is, we’re nowhere close to striking a fair balance. Because we’re so focused on what we don’t have, we never get around to seeing what we do have. We’re so worried about being poor, we forget that we have already been made rich.
And I think that’s why Paul reminds us in this passage that Jesus became poor on our behalf. He wants us to remember that Jesus gave of himself until he had nothing left to give. Jesus gave so that we might have life, and that we might have it abundantly. And that’s exactly what we are called to do as a church. To give like Jesus. To give, not out of fear or out of guilt, but out of our abundance. To give because, whether or not we realize it, we have been made rich in Christ.
You know, I love to watch those infomercials on TV that describe these get rich quick schemes. Those are the ones with the dramatic testimonials from regular people, just like you and me, who suddenly increase their net worth by over $5,000 a month. And on TV, it all seems so easy.
But for some reason, I never see any infomercials about how to get poor quick. Have y’all noticed that? And I guess that’s because being poor is not a condition to which most of us aspire. In our culture, it’s just assumed that everybody wants to be rich. But the interesting thing is that, for a long time in the church, being poor was something to which people did aspire. Religious men and women took vows of poverty, and for centuries, it was a contradiction for a person to be both wealthy and a good Christian.
My, how times have changed. Our priorities have shifted. And now, just like everybody else outside the church, money has come to dominate our lives. We are so afraid of being poor that we spend our entire lives working to make sure it never happens. We’ve never once stopped to consider that maybe there are worse things than being poor.
But when we read this passage of Scripture, we find that not only was Jesus poor, but that he intentionally chose to become poor, in order that he might give to others. It’s a completely new model for giving. And so, the question for us this morning is not just to consider what it means that Jesus was poor, but what it might mean for us? A couple of weeks ago, I outlined my expectations for the church as we begin this new phase of our lives together. But one big thing I left off my list of expectations was giving money. And I left it off because I don’t like to talk about money in church. Talking about money makes us feel guilty and uncomfortable and sometimes even angry.
But I’ve got some good news for you. My reluctance to talk about money is something I’m quickly getting over. Because the reality is, that if we are serious about doing these renovations and continuing our ministry at Park View, we’re gonna need money. These dreams are gonna require us to step up and give. I don’t necessarily think that will be easy. In fact, it might mean reordering our priorities to give up some of our other expendable income. But I think it’s time for us to make those choices. It’s time for us to stop focusing on what we don’t have, and to look around and see what we do have. God has given so much here at Park View Baptist Church. And now, out of that abundance, let us find a way to give so that others may come to know the richness of Christ. AMEN