Riches I Heed Not Too Much

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

This fall, we're studying the book of Second

Corinthians. Second Corinthians is a heartfelt

and practical book calling us back to the life

of the cross. We, like the Corinthians, so often

pursue glory, admire eloquence, shun suffering,

hide hurt, and hoard our goods. And yet the gospel

of Jesus tells us that resurrection comes after

a cross. that comfort comes after being crushed,

that the way up is the way down, that the way

to glory is through suffering, that his strength

is made perfect in our weakness. We'd love to

meet you and we hope you'll consider coming and

joining with us each Sunday morning at 10 a .m.

in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find

us online at secondcitychurch .org and on Facebook,

Instagram, and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this

sermon. God bless. Oh Lord God, we confess that

you are God and we are not. In your light, we

see light. Please grant us your grace, illumine

this text for us, help us to know you and love

you better. We pray these things in the name

of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. This is a famous

Quote here try to remember if you have heard

this before and if so where and then come and

talk to me about it later, okay? Good name in

man and woman dear my lord is the immediate jewel

of their souls Who steals my purse? steals trash

to something nothing twas mine Tis his and has

been slave to thousands, but he that filches

from me my good name robs me of that which not

enriches him and makes me poor indeed. That's

a pretty great quote, right? It's a kind of a

beautiful sentiment. My money is not as important

as my honor. That's something we can get behind.

So here's what I think happens. People, when

they want to talk about money, they Google famous

quotes about money. And they see that one, and

they say, Shakespeare, that guy's smart. Score.

And so they put it into their speech or into

their book or whatever. Well, here's a public

service announcement. Beware quoting Shakespeare

if you don't know the plays. Because, as many

of you I imagine know already, those lines that

I quoted for you are from the play Othello, and

particularly from the character Iago, and Iago

is high on the list of wickedest people in all

of fiction. He is cruel and deceptive, without

reason. He causes the catastrophe of the tragedy

of Othello just because he's grumpy. He's a liar.

In the section that I quoted for you, He's lying

about not caring about money. The play actually

opens with a different character, sort of a fool

named Rodrigo, who's complaining that Iago keeps

spending all of Rodrigo's money. Later on in

the play, Iago will tell Rodrigo not to worry

about a girl, Desimona, that he can't get, but

rather just to put money in my purse. Money will

comfort you, right? So the phrase who steals

my purse steals trash it sounds really good But

it's missing important context if you don't know

its origin, right? Shakespeare knows that the

guy who tells you that he doesn't care about

money is Probably the same guy getting trying

to get you to hand over you money to him He doth

protest too much to borrow from another play.

So Let's keep that dynamic in mind as we go to

talk about The Bible. 2 Corinthians 8 is a text

about money and what we do with it, and more

than that, it's a text that's encouraging a church

to give generously. Many of us were raised to

think that you shouldn't talk about money socially

because that's not polite, but the Bible is often

not a polite book. It says impolite things like

that whoever does not believe in the name of

Jesus is condemned already. John 3, 18. It also

says that you, like the Corinthians, should be

willing to give your money. This is uncomfortable.

Now, I want to take a moment and put in a plug

for the kind of preaching that we do here in

this church and in the PCA more generally, and

that is just to preach straight through books.

There's an ancient practice called lectio continua,

which is a Latin phrase which just means read

without stopping. So we'll just choose a book

of the Bible and then preach through the entire

thing without jumping around. Why? Well, it's

the mission of this church to give the whole

counsel of God, as Paul says. And one of the

ways that we do that is just preaching what's

in front of us, not dodging passages that we

don't like, even if they make us uncomfortable.

We believe God put what he wanted his people

to hear in the Bible. So we make a point. of

preaching through it straight to make sure we

get a balanced diet of what he wants to say.

What I'm saying is I did not sign up to say like,

oh, please let me preach about money today, right?

So I say all this to you. And also you guys,

if you're sitting out there and you're a regular

attender, you're thinking to yourself, wait,

but why is he skipping chapter seven? Didn't

we just finish chapter six last week? Yes, we

did finish the end of chapter six last week and

according to Lectio Continua We should do chapter

seven this week, but Peter and I got confused

a couple of weeks ago And so I planned for eight

so that's what we're doing so deal with it all

right, so it's Lectio Mostly Continua Peter's

gonna do seven next week deal with it all right

our text today is about money Let's do an overview

of the chapter. So Paul is asking the Corinthians

to contribute to a big donation to go to care

for the poor people in the Church of Jerusalem,

and he wants to do it in such a way, quote, that

no one should blame us about this generous gift.

That's verse 20. This collection is one of the

big goals of all of Paul's ministry, so in addition

to a reference to it in 1st Corinthians and then

this reference in 2nd Corinthians and chapter

9, so look out for that one too, it also shows

up as part of a fundraising effort in Romans

Romans 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15 and then we see in Acts chapter 24

Acts 24 · chapter mention

as Paul is defending himself against the governor

Felix, he mentions that he did in fact go and

give this gift to Jerusalem. So he got it done.

So Paul notes at the beginning of this chapter

that the Macedonian churches, which if you are

uninformed about Middle East geography, like

myself, means the churches of Philippi, Thessalonica

and Berea, even though they were poor and persecuted,

just like the Jerusalem church, they really wanted

to give. And so they gave from extreme poverty.

That's verse two. They gave beyond their means.

That's verse 3. And Paul has been bragging to

people about how great the Corinthians have been

doing. That is at the end of our text in verse

24. the Corinthians themselves should give. That's

the sense of the passage. And, since this is

the Bible and we believe it's relevant to our

lives today, I think we can learn good things

from this chapter about how to think about our

own possessions and how we are to worship the

Lord with our substance, as it says in Proverbs

3. Okay, so what I want to say this morning,

in its most general form, is this. If we are

Bible -believing Christians, the Bible should

inform our interactions with money. Money is

not some morally neutral area that's beyond the

scope of the Bible's teachings. So I hijacked

a great verse from the hymn, Be Thou My Vision,

one of my all -time favorites, for my title.

If you remember the verse, it says, riches I

heed not, nor man's empty praise. Well, I think

in this chapter, Paul is saying we have to heed

riches a little bit, in part because we need

to be aware of what other people are saying.

rich as I heed, but not too much. That's not

a knock on the hymn. So here is my argument this

morning. I think in the specifics of this text

itself, where Paul is building his argument that

the Corinthians should give money, we can see

three good principles we can use when we think

about the complex issues associated with money

and faith. So here they are. Here's my three

points. First, most importantly, Jesus is never

irrelevant. Secondly, money is a good, but it

is not an eternal good. And third, people are

more important than money. Okay? Jesus is never

irrelevant. Money is good, but not eternally.

Three people are more important than money. Let's

take a look. At the beginning of the chapter,

We see five verses praising the Macedonians and

interestingly, it's praising God that he's given

the Macedonians their generosity. Then there's

a three verse transition into how the Corinthians

should be generous like the Macedonians. That's

verses six through eight. Then you get this startling

rationale for this claim or this call to generosity.

This is the verse we've already seen today, verse

nine. This is a wild argument. Consider this

as an explanation for your behavior. You should

be generous. Why? Because Jesus died. You should

show your love to be genuine. Why? Because Jesus

died. Let's note what Paul is not saying. He's

not saying, Jesus gives away his very life, so

you should be willing to give me all of your

stuff. That's not what Paul is asking the Corinthians.

It's not what he's asking us. Look at verse 13

in our text. He says, But that's exactly what

happens in Jesus' death. He is burdened and we

are eased. That's how that worked, right? So

Jesus' kind of giving is not the kind of giving

that Paul wants from the Corinthians. Paul is

asking for something far less radical. We're

not being called to die that others might live,

even economically. Look at the rhetorical gentleness

of what Paul is asking for us here, right? Excel

in this act of grace, it says. Verse 7, not as

a command. Verse 8, because you desire to. Verse

10, out of what you have. Verse 11, your abundance

should supply their need. Verse 14, there are

so many qualifiers here. He's simply not asking

us to give in the painful way that Jesus does.

Why? Because it's impossible for us to. Think

about how Jesus gives. He gives extravagantly.

Jesus gives up the very treasures of heaven,

that's when he was rich, to come and dwell with

us and die. And as Flannery O 'Connor says, you

can't get no poorer than dead. And because of

that poverty that Jesus voluntarily takes on,

we get His riches. We get peace with God and

entrance into heaven. And you don't get that

on any other terms but His. So, if we're not

being called to emulate Jesus in His total self

-giving, why is this verse in here? I'll tell

you. It's because For the believer, this, this

verse nine, is the foundational truth of the

universe. Every decision that we make needs to

be made in light of the fact that Jesus's voluntary,

sacrificial death has changed all the rules of

the world. It's a paradigm shifting way to think

about all of life, including finance. So, I'll

give you an analogy. In 1958, economist John

Kenneth Galbraith published his book, The Affluent

Society, in which he claimed that we need, as

a culture, to stop thinking in terms of scarcity

and start thinking in terms of abundance because

our modern conditions have made that possible.

And if we make that mental shift, we can then

make bolder steps toward eliminating poverty

as a whole. I don't know if his argument is right.

I'm not an economics guy, it sounds good to me,

but Paul, you know, 1800 years before he wrote,

has done him one better. He says, abundance and

scarcity are both relative. And by the way, Jesus

Christ endured pain on your behalf, so you could

experience his spiritual affluence throughout

eternity. And so, by the way, we can work to

alleviate poverty. So that was all point one.

Jesus is never irrelevant. He's always going

to be the main point of how we make all of our

decisions. Point two. Money is a good, but it's

not an eternal good. Where do we see that in

this text? Let's take a look at the verse Paul

quotes from in order to anchor his argument.

This is verse 15. As it is written, whoever gathered

much had nothing left over. and whoever gathered

little had no lack." What's this quote doing

here? What connection does it have to the rest

of Paul's argument? So, Paul is referencing Exodus

Exodus 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16, which we read part of this morning

for our Old Testament text. So, in advising the

Corinthians to give generously to the Jerusalem

church, he cites the Exodus event. That is the

time when the people of God were wandering through

the wilderness, right? the desert and everybody

would have starved unless God had provided them

with bread from heaven think about it You should

give to Jerusalem because more than a thousand

years ago in the time of Moses everybody was

starving in the desert Okay, so if you're like

me you're thinking Paul Exodus doesn't actually

seem to have anything to do with what you're

talking about currently This seems a little bit

like the people who want to quote Shakespeare

on money and use the who steals my purse steals

trash line without knowing the context. It seems

almost random like Paul used the first century

equivalent of Google. Old Testament texts about

fairness. Find me one. If I was grading the Apostle

Paul's essay to the Corinthians in my literature

class, I would take points off. But the problem

with my grading system is that Paul, unlike my

students as far as I can tell, is writing under

the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So it turns

out that what I thought was a very tenuous connection

is exactly the right connection for Paul's original

hearers and for us today. So let me read a little

bit of the Exodus text to you again. So this

is Exodus 16 starting in verse 16 says this is

what the Lord has commanded Gather of it each

one of you as much as he can eat you shall each

take an Omer get your Omer's right according

to the number of the persons that each of you

has in his tent and The people of Israel did

so they gathered some more some less But when

they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered

much had nothing left over and whoever gathered

little had no lack. That's the part, of course,

that Paul sources. Each of them gathered as much

as he could eat. Now, this is where it gets super

interesting for me. This is verse 19 in chapter

16 of Exodus. And Moses said to them, let no

one leave any of it over till the morning. But

they did not listen to Moses. Some left part

of it till the morning, and it bred worms and

stank. And Moses was angry with them. How interesting.

So that part, that part about the stink, that

comes immediately after the part that Paul quotes.

Stink? Worms? What's the connection? Here it

is. You can't hoard what's not hoardable. You

can't keep what doesn't keep. Shakespeare says,

youths of stuff cannot endure. Moses says, manna

won't endure throughout the night. And Paul,

by implication, is saying here what? Money is

a stuff that won't endure overnight. What does

that mean? Because obviously it's untrue in our

day -to -day life, right? We have a day -to -day

life. Our money doesn't just vanish and get worms,

right? Well, think about it. What about when

Jesus says, the night is coming when no man can

work? What about when the Apostle John says,

children, it is even now the last hour? If you

think big about what a day can mean in biblical

terms, well then you get your answer to what

Paul is doing here. Paul is talking about the

calendar of salvation and the clock is ticking.

Friends, we are spiritually In the last day,

we are in the last hour. The night is coming

and then it's the new day, right? That means

that if we are hoarding up wealth for ungodly

purposes, like the Israelites were hoarding more

manna than Moses told them they should keep,

right? In the analogy that Paul is making, we

are going to be left from our money. We're going

to be left with nothing but a big pile of worms

and rot. You can't take it with you, as the saying

goes, and it will pollute your heart if you try.

All of our hard -earned money is worth nothing

but worms and filth, eternally speaking. Unless,

unless the Lord has enlightened our hearts and

we use our money in a way that is congruous with

his own character. Why? Because the point is

never that manna is bad, right? Manna was necessary

for the Israelites in the wilderness. They would

have died without it. Money is necessary for

us in our society right now. It would be really

hard to live without it. Money is a good. Manna

is a good. But it is only good in the way that

God ordained it. It's good to keep you alive

and thankful and dependent on Him. Because that's

the other point of this analogy, isn't it? Without

God's continuous providential blessing of His

people, they would have starved in the wilderness.

Without God's continuous providential blessing

on His people right now, we would be utterly

lost. So part one, money won't last into eternity.

Part two, everything you have currently is God's

gift. Both of those things are right here beneath

the surface of this text because of this quote

that Paul uses. Okay? And those two things together

give huge emotional support to this idea of generosity

or fairness, the thing that Paul is arguing for

here, right? If everything I have is a gift from

God and what I have can't last into eternity

and we're called to give to others, of course

I should give freely. Think about what else flows

from this argument. If everything we have is

equivalent to manna and we're called to give

to others, it follows we're being called to be

a part of God's generosity. When you put it that

way, it's no wonder the Macedonians begged for

the favor of providing relief of the saints.

We will too if we get what Paul is saying here,

right? We get to be the manna producers, right?

That's the angels. That's amazing. What follows

from this is my last point. People are more important

than money. This is not an obscure point in the

Bible. If you're willing to let yourself think

in monetary terms about people made in the image

of God, that's a big spiritual problem. That's

a no -no. So the clear background for this whole

passage is that people are more important. God's

people in Jerusalem are hungry. Therefore, for

Paul, we try to feed them. There's not even a

question. But what I'm interested in more particularly

in this text is actually the way that that basic

principle works in practice here, right? So let's

make a detour quickly to say that the topic of

money is pretty complex in the Bible. Money is

a good that can very easily become a bad. The

New Testament historian Ben Witherington lists

no less than eight broad ways the Bible speaks

about money, and five of those eight ways are

bad. So in Wutherington's categories, this chapter

is talking about one of the good uses of money,

which is, quote, wealth as a resource for human

needs, but even in providing for others. we have

a biblical obligation to be wise and discerning

about the way that we give. C .S. Lewis put it

really well when he says the fact that you are

giving money to charity does not mean that you

need not try to find out whether that charity

is a fraud. He says that as an aside in a larger

argument because he's brilliant. So what I mean

is that Paul is showing us that as we give, as

we give, we also have to be on guard against

the temptation to sinfully abuse money that giving

money can create. The people that we ask to give

and the people around us broadly in culture and

their consciences are all important too. They're

just as important as the actual money. And so

in Wuthering's terms, we have to guard against

and help others guard against the category wealth

as a stumbling block. So what's the temptation

created specifically when people are giving money

to charity? It's fraud, of course. It's embezzlement.

You might remember from our gospel reading this

morning that Judas was upset when a large sum

of money was not given to the poor. He didn't

care about the poor. He wanted to take it for

himself, right? That's That's the temptation

that's out there when there's a large pools of

money So what we see Paul doing in this text

is guarding against that temptation to take a

little bit off the top We see this how in the

apparatus of giving that he is using First he

sends Titus who the Corinthians know because

they've met him before that's in verse 6 He's

also sending these two unnamed brothers. This

is verse 18 and also verse 22 We are sending

our brother with them. We are sending our brother.

And he says that both of the brothers are quote,

messengers of the churches. That's verse 23.

At least one commentary suggests that that phrase,

messengers of the churches, means there were

special delegates from different individual churches,

probably in different cities. What we see here

is Paul is specifying three different people

who are coming together. probably from different

places, at least two of whom are known commodities

to the people that he's writing to. What this

means is these guys are intended to be able to

report back to each of their individual congregations

that everything's going the way it should. They

gave the money. It all got where it was intended

to go. Great. So Paul's providing guardrails

to keep everybody honest. This is as close to

being better business certified as it was possible

to be. Think about it. This is a time when bribery

and graft were the way that business got done.

We've all heard about this with the Roman tax

collectors of the day, right? So given that situation,

Paul in the early church needed to invent systems

of personal voluntary giving that won't end up

with the money in somebody else's pocket. And

what he comes up with is this. This three -person

system. I think what we can see here is we should

not be secretive with our finances We should

rely on systems of accountability rather than

one person's individual conscience, right? These

are good principles one commentary says this

Paul could write like a poet and think like a

theologian But he could also act with a meticulous

accuracy and integrity of the best accountant

So I think a real application we can make here

is that Organizations should be open, but they're

finances and if they're not you shouldn't trust

them probably Paul aims at what is honorable

not only in the Lord's sight but also in the

sight of man that's verse 21 and Trustworthy

organizations will do the same and on that note.

I want to say in praise of this church that we

do that. We routinely have economic meetings

where the whole budget is available to look at.

We aim to be honorable in the sight of man. So,

in closing, and like Paul, I want to address

some potential grumbles. Some of you might be

out there thinking, come on, stalker, this is

just moralism. Where's the gospel here? And I

want to tell you that I was kind of thinking

that myself when I came up with my outline. And

before that, I was thinking, oh no, I don't want

to preach about money. But then I thought to

myself, well, the structure of the sermon kind

of resembles one of Paul's letters, right? We

address the gospel first. Jesus made himself

poor so that by his poverty, we might become

rich. And then we saw what flows out of that.

We need to give generously and thoughtfully and

wisely. Some other people might be saying, look,

I don't mind a little morality, but I come to

church to hear about spiritual stuff, not money.

Money is not a holy topic. And I sympathize with

you if you're thinking that. I applaud your impulse.

As a rule of thumb, I think if you go to a church

service and the main point seems to be, give

us your money, you probably should go to a different

church. But here's the thing. The Bible actually

is the text that gets to tell us what's spiritual

and what's not, right? So in this text, which

is an entire chapter about the wise giving and

money, we learn that the generous giving of money

in a discerning way is in fact a spiritual good.

Something can be spiritual and practical at the

same time. If it's not practical at all, I tend

to think it's imaginary. So when the wicked Iago

says, who steals my purse, steals trash while

he's reaching for your wallet? You can say to

him, well, you might have kind of an eternal

point, but I feel like you're missing Paul's

metaphor here. In this life, my purse is not

trash. And in fact, I have an obligation as much

as possible to keep my money away from bad actors.

in order that I can give more freely to the people

of God and the work of the church in the world.

Amen? All right, well let's pray. Oh Lord God,

we praise you for you are good. Your mercy endures

forever. We praise you, oh Lord, that though

you are rich beyond all splendor, yet for love's

sake you became poor. that you fill us with the

treasure of the gospel, with the treasure of

the Holy Spirit. We ask, O Lord, that you would

be present with us, that you would open our hearts

to you, that our lives would reflect your generosity

towards us, towards others. Lord, we pray all

of these things in Jesus name. Amen. We hope

this sermon has encouraged you to worship God

and to celebrate the gospel of Jesus. Please

consider subscribing to this podcast and joining

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for listening. God bless.