Living a Life That Counts (Proverbs 3:1-12)

 **** In this stewardship season, the connection between heart and treasure is really standing out. 

The theme of our Stewardship Campaign is “There our hearts will be…”

The theme is taken from the scripture we heard in week one, where Jesus says “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” [Matthew 6:21]. 

It points to the connection between what’s in your heart, and how you spend your treasure…

…something that we see in today’s scripture, which mentions “heart” multiple times:

“Let your heart keep my commandments.”

Write “loyalty” and “faithfulness” on the tablet of your heart.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart…

All this is a reminder that stewardship is not just about money… and a reminder that money isn’t just about money. 

Stewardship and money are really all about what’s in our hearts.

**** Whenever I talk about stewardship and money, I like to define what money is. I did this last year, and someone told me that it was very meaningful to them, and completely changed how they viewed money.

First, let me ask you: how would you define money? There are lots of ways to define money, lots of ways that people define money… but how do you define money?

Maybe you’ve never thought much about it… So let’s think about where our money comes from….

We get almost all of our money by going to work. If we’re not working, then someone else is working on our behalf.

And what happens when we go to work? When we go to work, we enter into an agreement, where we give a certain number of hours in exchange for an agreed upon amount of money. 

And in those certain number of hours, we are giving our life energy to our boss, or to the company.

So, we give a certain number of hours of our life energy, and in exchange, we receive a certain amount of money. We’ve converted our life energy into money.

So: perhaps the best way to define what money is, is to say that money is what we exchange our life energy for. Or: money is our life energy, converted into cash.

I went online this week, to look for jobs. (I’m not looking for a job for me, I’m just doing some sermon research!)

And the first job opening I found was for a manufacturing team member at Rivian, a job that pays $23 an hour.

What that means is that, if you apply and are hired, you will be exchanging one hour of your life energy, and receiving $23.

If you work a 40-hour week—if you give to Rivian 40 hours of your life energy—then you’ll receive $920. $23 times 40 hours a week is $920.

That $920 is 40 hours of your life energy.

So let’s say you decide to spend the weekend in Chicago. When you arrive, you get something to eat, and let’s say that meal costs you $23. Well, the real cost of that meal is one hour of your life energy.

And let’s say your whole weekend costs you $920. (I’m keeping things simple here!)

Well, because money is life energy, the real cost to you for that weekend is 40 hours of your life energy. Because you had to work 40 hours—you had to give 40 hours of your life energy—in exchange for the $920 that you spent on your weekend in Chicago.

So, when we’re talking about money, we're not just talking about money. We’re talking about life. We’re talking about life energy—the life energy that God has blessed us with. 

*****

In verse 9 of today’s scripture, it says: “Honor the Lord with your substance…” In a lot of translations, that same verse reads: “Honor the Lord with your wealth.”

I am not an expert in Biblical Hebrew, but it does seem that the Hebrew word here has connotations of both. It seems to be a word that means wealth or riches, yet at the same time there is a recognition that wealth is never just wealth, that riches are never just riches, that money is never just money.

Money is always more than just money. Money represents the very substance of our lives.

All of our money, all of our wealth, represents our life. 

How we spend our money is what we devote our life energy to. 

Treasure and heart really are connected.

Now, I know you want your life to count. You want your life to mean something. You don’t want your life to be a waste.

And I know (because you are here) that you believe that the ministry of First Christian Church can help you live a life that matters, and/or that the ministry of First Christian Church can make a difference in bringing wholeness to our fragmented world.

So I invite you, when you consider your priorities for 2027—including your financial priorities—to consider how your use of money reflects the things you most value in life.

Every month, I go through my financial records, to keep track of what I spent money on. I want to see how I’m spending my life energy. 

I group things in categories: housing, utilities, groceries, eating out, entertainment, and money I give to the church or other charity.

And I admit, when I look back over how I spend my money in the previous month, it doesn’t always line up with the things I value. It doesn’t always line up with what’s in my heart. 

And I see my life energy being spent on things that don’t count, that don’t matter. Things that, in the long run, do little to bring wholeness to me or to the world.

And so, each month, I ponder what changes I want to make in my spending habits, so that more of my life energy is being spent on things that matter to me, things that are important to me.

And I also pray that the things that matter to me and are important to me are also the things that matter to God and are important to God. 

Because I want my life energy, which is a gift from God, to be used in ways that bring glory to God.

*****

“Honor the Lord with your substance… and with the first fruits of all your produce.” [3.9]

I’ve talked about the first half of this verse; now let me talk about the second half.

There are a number of places in the Bible where it talks about “first fruits.”

*****The command to honor the Lord with the first fruits of our produce is explained in Leviticus 23:9-14, where the Lord says to Moses:

 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall raise the sheaf before the Lord, that you may find acceptance; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall raise it. On the day when you raise the sheaf, you shall offer a lamb a year old, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. 

***** And the grain offering with it shall be two-tenths of an ephah of choice flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the Lord, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. You shall eat no bread or parched grain or fresh ears until that very day, until you have brought the offering of your God. This is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your settlements.

That is a long, detailed command! 

It is a command that basically says: when it comes to your wealth, make God your priority.

******

For Hebrews, most of their wealth was in the form of their produce, the crops they grew. Hence, the reference to giving to God their “first fruits.” 

When it comes to honoring the Lord with the first fruits of all your produce, the lesson for us is to be sure that, when we figure out our budgets, how we are going to spend our money, that we make God a priority.

We don’t give to God the leftovers. We don’t plan out our expenditures, then give to God whatever is leftover at the end. 

Giving to God comes first. Giving to God takes precedence.

Not because God is selfish or greedy… but because how we spend our money is a reflection of what’s in our hearts. 

If we want God to be at the center of our lives, then God needs to be at the center of our giving and our finances… because money is more than money, money is life.

****

There is another command from God regarding the use of money… 

In many places, scripture speaks of a tithe. If you grew up in the church, you probably know what it means to tithe, but if you didn't, you might not, especially since we in the church, in recent years, haven’t always done a good job educating people on these things.

A tithe, simply put, means a tenth; a tenth of your wealth; a tenth of your life; a tenth of your substance.

In Leviticus 27, verse 30 & 32, it says: “All tithes from the land… are the Lord’s, and they are holy to the Lord… All tithes of herd and flock, every tenth one that passes under the shepherd’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord.”

That is the standard that scripture sets: a tenth of your wealth belongs to God.

I had a friend who was part of a group of people who were starting a new church. They didn’t have a building, so they didn’t have many expenses related to owning a building… but they did want to hire a full-time pastor.

And they realized that, theoretically speaking at least, if they got ten households to tithe, to give a tenth of their income, then they’d have enough money to pay a full-time salary.

***** Now, some may ask: is that a tenth of your gross income, or net income? Does that only refer to giving money to the church, or does money given to other charities and organizations count as well? And what about my time? If I give more of my time, can I give less of my money?

Every one of these questions is the type of question that drove Jesus nuts. It’s like asking, “but who is my neighbor?” It’s looking for a loophole. 

By simply asking the question, it is clear that your heart and your treasure are not aligned.

If you are asking those questions, then my response is: let your heart answer them. 

Because ultimately, that’s what Jesus really wants. That’s what God really wants.

Your heart…

Your unwavering devotion…

Your commitment to making your life count, using your life energy to follow the way of Jesus; and using all your substance—all your heart, soul, mind, and strength—to help this ministry entrusted to us carry out its mission: 

proclaiming the gospel in word and deed, inviting and welcoming all to the Lord’s Table; strengthening our spirituality with God and one another through prayer, worship, study, and fellowship; and serving our community with passion.

"With All You've Got" (Deuteronomy 6:1-9)

 *******When Jesus was asked, “What is the most important commandment?” He quoted one of the verses we just heard: 

The most important command is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” [Matthew 22:37]

This is part of the Shema, which is the central affirmation of Judaism. 

The word shema is Hebrew; it means to hear. 

“Hear, O Israel,” is how the Shema begins.

And that hearing implies doing. It implies obeying. 

One who hears the command takes it to heart and lives it.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

*********

The next verses then instruct Jews to “Recite [these words] to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Many ancient Jews took these instructions literally. They had little tube-shaped cases, called a mezuzah, in which they would place pieces of parchment, with these words on them. 

And to the doorpost in their homes they would attach a mezuzah. And some would even carry a mezuzah on them, wherever they went.

And some Jews still practice this today.

Once, I had a group of youth make their own mezuzah. We wrote out important bible verses—perhaps even the Shema—and placed them inside little film containers… you know, those black containers with grey lids that camera film came in. (Or maybe you don’t know. You don’t see as many film containers anymore since most of the pictures we take these days are digital.)

Anyway, it was a great way to learn about this ancient Jewish practice, and to remind ourselves of the importance of scripture—especially scripture as important as this. 

*******

The verses also instruct believers to teach these words to their children, to talk about them when they are at home and when they are away from home. In this way, the teachings of God would be passed down from one generation to the next. 

I suspect that Jesus was taught these words at a very young age by Joseph and Mary. Perhaps Joseph, as he did his carpentry work, making doors and doorposts, would recite them, almost as a chant… and Jesus would hear. 

And these words became so ingrained in Jesus that he associated them with the woodworking his father did.

And when someone asked him what was the most important command, Jesus immediately pictured Joseph at work, making a door…

And Jesus said that the most important command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength… and to also love your neighbor as yourself.

Because you can’t love God if you don’t love your neighbor…

*******It even says as much in 1 John 4, which is kind of a commentary on what Jesus said about this most important command: “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”

To follow this command, to hear and obey the Shema, you must not only love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; you must love your brother, your sister, your neighbor as well.

And then Jesus, still picturing the doors his father made, said: “On these two hang all the teachings of the law and of the prophets.”

******So: picture a door, (like the one Joseph is working on in this image), with all the commands of God written on it. There are hundreds of commands in the Bible. 

And at the top and the bottom of the door are the two hinges.

One hinge is “love the Lord your God.”

The other hinge is “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Everything hangs on these two hinges. Everything hangs on these two most-important commands.

*******

Now, the way some people get so hung up on certain lesser commands—commands that they’ve misinterpreted, or twisted, or that just really aren’t that important… 

It’s like they are looking at a spot on the door itself, maybe a spot where the wood is a little darker, maybe where the grain swirls around a certain way…

Did you ever look at old pieces of wood with swirly grain, and stare at it awhile, until you start to see really scary faces? Sinister faces, staring at you? It’s not just me, right?

Anyway, some people will look at these spots on the wood, and point to it, and say: it is the most important thing in the world…

But, meanwhile, their hinges are loose, and the door is about to fall off!

They have neglected love of God and love of neighbor. And they have misinterpreted these other commands because they have not interpreted them through the love of God and neighbor on which everything hangs. 

*******

But thank God there are many who do pass these two most important commands down to their children, just as Joseph passed them down to Jesus, just as parents ever since the time of Moses have done.

And one generation after another, we have learned the importance of loving God, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. These two commands guide how we interpret and understand all the other commands.

And we have many to thank for this, for teaching us about God’s love for us, and our duty to love God and love our neighbor.

Who was it that taught you this? Was it your own parents? Or maybe a grandparent? Or some other family member?

Or maybe it was someone in church. A Sunday School teacher, perhaps.

I still remember sitting in my kindergarten Sunday school class, 50 years ago, all of us in a circle, on little wooden chairs… and Mrs. Campbell, Evelyn Campbell, our Sunday School teacher, teaching us the words to “Jesus Loves Me.”

Certainly, besides my own parents, church folks like her played an important role in me learning about God’s love for me, and my duty to love God and love those around me.

Today we read the names of 20 saints; members of this congregation who have passed away in the past year. 

I bet a lot of you learned about God’s love from one or more of them.

If any of those people whose names we read taught you about God’s love, or showed you God’s love, or helped you understand or experience God’s love, would you raise your hand? If any of those 20 people helped you know God’s love, please raise your hand…

And then there are those whose names we read last year, and the year before, and the year before that…

Thanks to them, we have known and experienced and learned about God’s love…

And we have learned to love God in return…

And love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

They have recited these commands, and put them in practice, and passed them on to us.

*****

Now, that task falls to us. To share God’s love. To show God’s love. To teach people about God’s love. 

…To teach people that we are to love God in return.

…And that the best way to show our love to God is by showing love to our neighbors.

This is an important thing to remember, as we continue with our stewardship campaign. We know how important it is that this message, this good news, this gospel, be passed down…

And so we commit ourselves—everything we’ve got—our heart, soul, mind, and strength—to carrying out the ministry which God has entrusted to us.

The world needs to know God’s love now more than ever. It’s up to us, to make sure the world gets that message.

All this is important to remember, also, as we approach Election Day. When we vote, we have a choice between different candidates, some of whom show great love to God and to neighbors; some of whom show little love to God and to neighbors; and some of whom claim to love God, but show little love to neighbors and thus cannot be said to really love God all that much.

I’ll leave it to you to sort out one from the other.

But I do hope that when you vote—if you haven’t voted already—that you remember this command that, hopefully, is written on your heart: that you are called to love God, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Which means you need to consider what’s best for your neighbor when you vote, and not just what’s best for you.

And who is your neighbor?

Well, someone once asked Jesus that very question, didn’t they? 

And Jesus told a story about a Samaritan…

Now, the Samaritans got blamed for everything. It was all their fault. Everything bad—they were blamed for. 

They were slandered, maligned, and vilified. They were ridiculed and mocked. The politicians and religious leaders spoke quite disparagingly of them, and often.

Think of what people today are slandered, maligned, vilified, ridiculed, mocked, and spoken of disparagingly by those in power—according to Jesus, they are the neighbors we are especially commanded to love.

Which means they are the ones we need to remember when we cast our vote.

Because the command to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength… and to love your neighbor as yourself… isn’t something we do only at certain times.

It’s a command we are to live, in every time, in every moment, of our lives.

When we vote.

When we consider the use of our resources.

When we ponder how much we should pledge to the ministry we share.

When we go in and go out, when we rise up in the morning and go to bed at night.

We are to recite these words, and think on them, as we work, as we play, as we interact with others, every moment, of every day of our lives.