Collection of a Willing Gift | 2 Corinthians 9:1-5 | 05/31/26

In Mark 10 17- 27, we read this.

And as he Jesus was setting out on his

journey, a man ran up and knelt before

him and asked him, "Good teacher, what

must I do to inherit eternal life?" And

Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me

good? No one is good except God alone.

You know the commandments, do not

murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not

steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not

defraud. Honor your father and your

mother. And he said to him, "Teacher,

all these I have kept from my youth."

And Jesus looking at him, loved him and

said to him, "You lack one thing. Go

sell all that you have and give to the

poor, and you will have treasure in

heaven, and come follow me."

Disheartened by the saying, he went away

sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

And Jesus looked around and said to his

disciples, "How difficult it will be for

those who have wealth to enter the

kingdom of God."

And the disciples were amazed at his

words. But Jesus said to them again,

"Children, how difficult it is to enter

the kingdom of God. 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."

And they were astonished, were

exceedingly astonished, and said to him,

"Then who can be saved?"

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man

it is impossible, but not with God? For

all things are possible with God."

For the last three weeks, we've been

talking about Christian giving and

generosity. This morning, I want to talk

to you about the greatest spiritual

obstacle to giving. The thing that most

often prevents us from giving generously

is not usually poverty. It's not usually

a lack of resources, especially in this

area of the world.

It's also not usually that we don't care

about anything else. We don't care about

anybody else. We just care about

ourselves. That's not usually the core

issue with Christians and generosity.

Sometimes we even want to give

generously and we make a commitment in

our minds what we're going to give. But

then the moment comes when it's time to

let go and we shrink back. We fail to

give. Well, we agreed with ourselves

that we would give. We believe that

giving to good causes is is a good

thing. We believe that we should give

generously to our church, to various

charities, to the poor, to the kingdom

of God. And yet, there is something that

prevents us from giving or at least

prevents us from giving generously.

This one thing that is what the church

has traditionally called avarice. Now

that's a new word for many of you.

Avarice. It comes from the Latin root

aver which means to crave.

We usually use the modern English word

greed.

We can struggle to give because there

are things that we crave that we do not

yet have.

There are things that we desire that we

do not yet possess. And that prevents us

from letting go of our money when it's

time to let go of our money. And the

church for hundreds of years has

considered avarice or greed as one of

the seven deadly sins. Not that all sins

aren't deadly, but there are seven in

particular which lead to other kinds of

sin. So I want to show you today how

when we struggle with generosity,

avarice is usually at the root of that

struggle.

So let's read our text this morning,

then we'll explore this root of avarice,

this vice, this deadly sin that has

hindered generosity of Christians for

millennia. Our text this morning is 2

Corinthians chapter 9:es 1-5. Go ahead

and turn in your Bibles if you've got

them. 2 Corinthians chapter 9:es 1-5.

Paul writes,

"Now it is superfluous for me to write

to you about the ministry for the

saints. For I know your readiness of

what I boast about you to the people of

Macedonia, saying that the that Aaya has

been ready since last year,

and your zeal has stirred up most of

them. But I am sending the brothers so

that our boasting about you may not

prove empty in this matter, so that you

may be ready as I said you would be.

Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with

me and find that you are not ready, we

would be humiliated to say nothing of

you for being so confident. So, I

thought it necessary to urge the

brothers to go on ahead to you and to

arrange in advance for the gifts you

have promised so that it it may be ready

as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

Let's unpack the problem of avarice from

our text this morning. First notice in

verse one, Paul says, 'Now it is super

superfluous for me to write to you about

the ministry for the saints. Superfluous

just means unnecessary.

It's useless. It would be redundant for

Paul to try to convince the Corinthians

why they need to give to the church in

Jerusalem. They know. He's talked to

them about this for a year. Jerusalem is

in a famine.

Their brothers and sisters are starving.

They understand the need. Paul's saying,

"You don't need to hear about the need

anymore. I've talked to you about this

enough. You understand what's necessary.

It would be redundant for me to talk to

you about that again.

He is expecting all of the Christians

from all of the other churches around

the world to contribute to the supply of

the Christians in Israel. And so in

verse one, he's like, I'm not going to

try to convince you anymore. You already

know.

I told you a year ago. So why does Paul

not need to tell them again? Look in the

beginning of verse two. for I know your

readiness. I know you're ready to give.

They've already agreed to contribute to

this offering for the church in

Jerusalem. They agreed a year ago.

They verbally committed themselves to

financially supporting the church in

Jerusalem. They were so ready to give to

the church that Paul even used them as

an example for the church in Macedonia

to inspire them to give. Look at the the

rest of verse two. For I know your

readiness, of which I boast about you to

the people of Macedonia, saying that

Aaya has been ready since last year, and

your zeal has stirred up most of them.

Aaya is the region that Corinth is in.

Paul's saying, "I told the Macedonians

that you were so ready to give, and it

it it cultivated the zeal in the

churches in Macedonia to give beyond

their means. They have now outgiven

their standard of living." What are you

going to do about that? Corinth,

your verbal commitment that you gave

last year motivated that much poorer

churches, the more much poorer churches

in Macedonia to give beyond their means.

And he's put them in a kind of godly

competition with each other. Have you

noticed that

he's told the Macedonian churches, the

churches in Philippi, Berea, and

Thessalonica, hey, you know how much the

Corinthians are planning on giving? And

the Macedonians were like, "Oh man, we

got to do better than that. Even though

they were poorer, they they came up with

even more."

And then Paul tells the Corinthians and

says,

"I know that you gave this generous

commitment, but Macedonia has raised

you. What will you do? Will you call?

Will you raise? Or will you fold?"

Paul wants them to outdo one another in

showing generosity. Now, Paul actually

is worried that the Corinthians will

fold. He's worried that they'll back out

of their commitment. How do I know? Look

at verse three. But I am sending the

brothers so that our boasting about you

may not prove empty in this matter so

that you may be ready as I said you

would be. Paul is saying to the

Corinthians, Corinthians, don't fail me.

Don't embarrass me in front of the

Macedonians and don't embarrass

yourselves.

In fact, he's sending these guys that

Pastor David Frederick mentioned last

week as a form of accountability. Titus

and two other brothers that he doesn't

name were heading to Corinth to organize

this collection in person. Now, why

would Paul worry about the Corinthians

backing out of their commitment? Does he

have any reason to be suspicious that

they may not fulfill this? Shouldn't he

assume the best about them? Well, Paul

knows the hearts of humans. He knows

that avarice dwells within each of us.

He knows that we all struggle with greed

to some extent.

More than that, when Paul became a

Christian, can't you imagine the Apostle

Peter saying, "Hey, Paul, come here. Let

me tell you about this couple named

Ananas and Safh."

You guys remember them from the book of

Acts?

Ananas and Safh were a husband and a

wife. And they saw the generosity of the

church in Jerusalem. They saw how all

the other brothers and sisters were

selling their possessions, selling their

extra houses, selling their their items

and giving that money to the poor to

make sure that everybody was taken care

of in the church.

And they were so inspired that they

wanted to do the same. And so with the

best of intentions, I assume they sold a

plot of land and they intended to give

the proceeds to the church.

But something happens to us when we get

a large sum of money in hand, right?

Something happens on that payday

or the cash out. We start to think, if I

didn't make this financial commitment,

think what I could buy with this.

Now that the money's actually in my

hand, what could I get with this?

And greed takes over. There's a whole

list of things that we want. Avarice

kicks in. And that's what happened to

Ananas and Safhiv. They held back some

of the money. And as they went to the

elders of the church and they gave them

some of the money, they said, "This is

all of it. This is all of it. This is

everything we made from the sale of our

land." And Peter said to them in Acts

chapter 5:es 3-5, "Ananas,

why has Satan filled your heart to lie

to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for

yourself part of the proceeds of the

land? While it remained unsold, did it

not remain your own? And after it was

sold, was it not at your disposal? Why

is that you have contrived this deed in

your heart? You have not lied to man,

but to God.

When Ananas heard these words, he fell

down and breathed his last. And great

fear came upon all who heard it. And

then a little later, Safh comes up and

Peter asks him, "Hey, what did you sell

the land for?" and she says this much,

the same amount that her husband said,

and he says, "Why do you lie to God?"

And she falls down dead as well. Paul

remembers Ananas and Safh. He knows how

easy it is to commit to giving money in

theory. But when it comes time to

actually write the check, to make the

transfer, to set up the recurring

giving, to hand over the cash, it

suddenly gets really hard because now

it's real.

Now it's in your hands. It's in your

account.

I've talked to a close friend of mine in

this church who is extremely generous

and he's very faithful in his giving. He

said, "Every time that recurring gift

leaves my account, it really hurts.

It really hurts. I think about all the

things I wish I could buy with that

amount of money."

But he fights through the avarice and he

gives generously anyway.

Every week he lets go of the things that

he really wants. He releases the desires

and lets them go unfulfilled for the

sake of honoring what he committed to

give to God.

Now, I want to take a few minutes and

explore why avarice is so deadly. Why

has the church called it a deadly sin

for centuries?

It's a dangerous It's a danger not just

to our generosity, it's a danger to our

very own souls.

If we're an extremely selfish person, we

should be very concerned about avarice.

First, let me give you the definition of

avarice or greed from Thomas Aquinus. He

explained it like this. We are greedy

when we excessively love or desire money

or any possession money can buy. And

some of you might be like, I don't

struggle with greed. I don't have a love

for money. I love boats, right? I love

cars. I I really really need a house in

the Bay Area. That's what I want. That's

what I need more than anything else.

Okay, that's still avarous. You don't

care about money, but you need the thing

that money can buy.

Houses and boats and cars are not bad

things in and of themselves. Of course,

they're not. But if that stuff is what

consumes our thoughts, if your entire

budget is oriented around those loves,

that's avarous.

Now, here's the real danger of greed or

really any vice or sin.

You are becoming a certain kind of

person.

That's the biggest danger

of following or clinging to or not

ridding yourself of any kind of vice or

sin is that it is shaping you to be a

certain kind of person.

You are all becoming a certain kind of

person. Here's a diagnostic question

from Rebecca D. Young's book called

Glittering Vices. She says, "If I keep

handling possessions like this for the

next 10 or 20 years, what sort of

character will I develop and what kind

of person will I become?"

And that West Hills is the greatest

danger of greed. What kind of person are

you becoming by your giving and your

getting, by your emptying and your

keeping?

Yes, greed hurts those who are in need

because they have to go without. But

more seriously, it hurts you because it

is making you a certain kind of person.

Now, let me show you why this is so

dangerous, where this leads. Let me show

you what kind of person you become if

you practice greed or greedy habits for

10 or 20 years. First, you're in danger

of becoming the kind of person who sees

God's stuff as your stuff.

You're in danger of becoming the kind of

person who sees God's stuff as your

stuff. When God God gives you wealth or

possessions, he's not giving it to you

to keep.

He's giving it to you to manage.

That is the Christian perspective on

wealth. You're a manager.

You don't own it. He owns it.

He's giving it to you to steward, to

manage on his behalf.

And yes, from what he gives you, you are

expected to provide for your family and

for yourself. But all of it is his.

Giving is an opportunity to show the

world the heart of God. That he gives

generously. And he expects us to

overflow and not to hoard. When you say

yes to greed over time, you become the

kind of person who thinks that the stuff

that you have is actually your stuff.

In contrast,

there are several brothers and sisters

in this church who offer up their homes

for all kinds of church events. They're

always showing hospitality to everybody

they meet.

Whenever I say thank you to those

people, you know what they say? It's not

my house. It's not my house. It's God's

house.

We just live in it. That attitude comes

from years and years of generosity of

being shaped by generosity.

It has formed them into a certain kind

of person. the kind of person who sees

the whole world as God's world,

including the stuff that they worked

hard for, it's still God's.

And isn't that why it's so hard to give?

I worked for it.

I sweated for it. This was my time. This

was my education. This was my skills and

my expertise.

And we forget the simple truth of 1

1 Corinthians 4:7

Corinthians 4:7.

What do you have that you did not

receive?

And if you received it, why do you boast

as if you did not receive it? And you

think, but it's mine. It's mine.

And who are you,

slave of Christ?

To say that anything is yours.

You are not your own. You were bought

with a price.

The vice of avarestice turns you into

the kind of person who thinks you

actually deserve

the stuff that is not even yours but

God's.

But here's the second way avarice will

change you over time. You will become

incredibly

self-sufficient.

Now you might hear that that phrase

self-sufficient. You think great goals.

I love self-sufficiency. That's that's

the plan to become wholly

self-sufficient.

Well, if you give into greed, you will

be. It will turn you into a kind of

functional atheist

who never needs God. You don't need to

trust him.

You don't need him to provide for you.

You don't need anything from God except

when you get really, really stuck. He's

just kind of a magical genie that you

turn to when you come to the end of your

resources. But you never plan to come to

the end of your resources. You won't

allow that to happen.

You will not allow yourself to be put in

that kind of position.

You're self-sufficient.

And even if you're not in the place

where you are self-sufficient, but if

you're in the place where you crave

self-sufficiency, where you want to be

in a place where you don't depend on God

for anything, where you don't depend on

anyone for anything, you also become the

kind of person who is really susceptible

to get-rich quick schemes.

You may get caught up in the new fad of

sports gambling that's crippling a

generation of young men.

Or you may get caught up in the overly

safe strategy of saving everything you

get for a rainy day because you're not

sure if God will get you through a rainy

day as comfortably as you would like.

You would rather go through a storm on a

cruise ship without God

than in a lifeboat with him.

self-sufficiently will drain you of your

faith over time.

Here's a third way that avarice will

form you over time. You will lose your

soul.

Can I say that again? You will lose your

soul.

This is why the church has called this a

deadly sin for centuries. When you give

in to greed over and over and over

again, you will begin to tighten your

grip on your stuff. You will begin to

widen your eyes to find more stuff to

grip tightly to. And pretty soon, you're

not looking at anything eternal anymore.

All you can see is material things.

And everything spiritual begins to die

in your universe. Your world shrinks

down and is reduced to only what is

matter, what is tangible, what is

attainable and visible. And God exists

maybe as an abstract idea, but you

haven't needed him for years. And oddly

enough, your world becomes the world of

an atheist where you function as if you

are only firing synapses. You're only a

mass of cells with enough brain activity

to gratify your yourself physically. You

function as if your fellow man doesn't

matter. As if heaven isn't real. As if

hell isn't a threat. Sure, you have

gained the world, but you've lost your

soul.

This is why we're doing a series on

heaven in a few months.

to remind us that we are just pilgrims,

that we are only pilgrims, that this

world is a rest stop on a journey to our

eternal home. You don't pour a

foundation at a rest stop.

We need to be reminded that we have a

better country awaiting us, an

inheritance which we cannot even

imagine, a kingdom in which we will have

no end with the God who loves us.

But avarice greed will blind you to

this. It will make you forget all of

that.

All of the greater and truer realities

will be lost in the materialism of this

world. You won't be able to see the

invisible past the visible.

This is why Paul says in Colossians 3

1-2. If then you have been raised with

Christ, seek the things that are above

where Christ is seated at the right hand

of God. Set your minds on things that

are above, not on things of earth.

Avarest would reverse that.

It would reverse that. And if you let it

over the course of five or 10 or 20

years, you will become the kind of

person who cannot even see the things

above. Even if you want to, you won't be

able to.

And I pity that kind of person above

all.

I pity you if you cannot see the things

above.

If you cannot see with eyes of faith

that you were made for a better world

than this one, I pity you. If you do not

understand your purpose, that you were

made to enjoy God and not his stuff, I

pity you.

If avarice takes hold of you, it will

reduce your universe to simply what is

material and drown out all that is

spiritual. And you will let be left as

the most empty creature on the planet

because you will have no purpose.

You will have no meaning.

No purpose other than to try to collect

things that do not satisfy you. No

purpose other than setting higher and

higher goals of achievement and

acquisition. And when you reach the top,

you will be the wealthiest and most

pitiable person of all.

I pity people who only believe in the

materialistic world. People who have

been taught that everything here is by

random chance and then who are expected

to somehow find some meaning in that.

That's a recipe for a mental health

crisis.

There is no meaning in the universe. So

create your own. Reinvent yourself

over and over again. Reinvent yourself

until you discover your purpose. Change

your gender, your sexual orientation.

Find the thing that makes you famous,

that takes you viral. Trade in your your

old wife for a new one.

Find the thing that finally makes you

feel complete.

Keep going. Keep going. Keep reinventing

yourself. Maybe the next version of you

will be the one where you finally find

true happiness and true purpose.

It's on you to discover meaning in this

meaningless world. I pity the

materialist.

This is the worldview that we in the

west are born into.

This is the breast milk of our society.

This is what we have drunk from our

infancy.

And Christians have the glorious

privilege of being set free from this.

We believe in the divine.

Our world is not reduced to what is

simply material.

We have purpose and we believe that it

was given to us so that we don't have to

continually rediscover or reinvent

ourselves. But avarice greed will take

that from you. It will steal your

freedom from you. It will rob you of all

joy and all satisfaction by offering you

the lie of material happiness.

In contrast,

what kind of person will you be in 10 or

20 years if you give radically and

generously?

First, you will become a self-denying

person instead of a self-gratifying

person. A generous person, a person of

virtue, will set certain limits or rules

for themselves. This is what Paul is

talking about when he says in verse 5.

So I thought it necessary to urge the

brothers to go on ahead to you and

arrange in advance the gift you have

promised. Paul is telling the

Corinthians to do three things in verse

5. First, they needed accountability.

That's why he's sending the brothers to

check in on their gift to make sure that

they're working towards it. Second, they

needed to be organized. They needed to

arrange in advance what they were going

to give. And then third, they needed to

follow through on what they were

promising to give. We at West Hills, we

need these three exhortations just as

much as the Corinthians did.

We need accountability. We need

organization. And then we need to follow

through in our promises. Generosity

takes intentionality.

It never ever happens by accident.

If you want to grow in generosity, get

someone to hold you accountable. The

perfect person to hold you accountable

is your spouse. If you have a spouse,

agree to be generous together, to outdo

one another in generosity.

Say to each other, we are going to give

X percentage of our income to the

church. We are going to save X dollars

to show hospitality every month to

strangers or to to people that we want

to bless. We're going to cut back in

some other areas in order to do this.

But let's hold each other accountable.

If you're married, this will be such a

fun bonding experience for you.

You'll be able to bond over blessing

other people. It becomes fun and a

little bit addicting.

Like instead of how much money can we

possibly squirrel away,

how much can we give away? What do you

think we could give away this month? Do

you think we could give away more than

last month?

If you're not married, find a friend to

be honest with each other about about

how much you're giving and how generous

you're being. Make it a friendly, godly

competition. Outdo one another in

generosity. Don't worry about the

commands, not to let your giving be seen

by others. That's for people who are

trying to brag about their giving, not

for people who are struggling to give

and want accountability.

So, first, be accountable in your

giving. Second, be organized in your

giving.

If your finances are not on a budget,

you will find it almost impossible to be

generous.

And honestly, in this day and age,

there's not really an excuse for not

being on a budget. There are so many

apps and tools out there. Your bank

probably provides one for free.

If you don't allocate forgiving into

your budget at the same rate that you're

getting paid, it's unlikely that you

will be very generous. What I mean is if

you get paid weekly, you should allocate

weekly generosity. If you get paid

monthly, you should allocate monthly

generosity. If you get paid by the job

or the gig, you should as soon as the

check comes, be generous.

Plan ahead of time and then follow

through on your commitment. Because if

you try to give after you've paid all

the bills, after you've bought all the

stuff that you wanted to buy, it becomes

very hard to let the money go. Remember

Ananas and Safh.

This is the biblical concept of first

fruits.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites

were commanded to bring the first

fruits, the beginning of their income,

their offerings to the temple right

after they got paid, right after the

harvest because God knows the hearts of

humans. If we wait until after we've

taken care of all of all the other

stuff, we will come with only our meager

leftovers.

When you first pick the fruit off the

tree, take the best fruit and bring it

to God.

Otherwise, what will happen is you'll

sell the fruit, you'll keep the income,

and you'll bring God the rotten apples

that have fallen on the ground that

nobody wants to eat. That's what happens

if you don't organize your giving. You

need accountability. You need

organization. And third, you need to

keep your promises. You need to keep

your promises. Paul is calling the

Corinthians to honor their oath to

fulfill their promise of financial

support. He has no problem telling them

to pay what they agreed to pay.

Now, for us, this might mean that we

have to make promises in the first

place. Many of us have probably never

made any sort of commitment or or giving

promise to the Lord.

for my wife and I. When we first got

married, I was just, you know, I was not

a giver before I got married. I married

a very generous person by God's grace,

and that has changed me over time. But

when we first got married, we were

broke. I mean, I worked at Trader Joe's,

and I didn't have a flower shirt. Uh,

she worked at the Cheesecake Factory. I

mean, we were broke.

But we committed

because she's stubborn to give 10% to

the church even when we were broke.

And we d we dreamt of increasing that

number over time. And by God's grace, we

were able to increase that number. We

were able to give more to other

organizations and to other individuals

and to bless people with hospitality.

10% might not be your number. For some

of you, that might be far too little.

You might make so much money that 10%

just makes no sense. It's not really

generous.

When one of our dear old saints passed

away a few years ago, his adi his

financial adviser told us that he was

giving away by the end of his life 90%

of his very substantial wealth. He was

giving it away to his church, to

missions organizations, and to the poor.

That's the kind of person that

generosity turns you into after decades.

Generous people put a rule or a governor

over their spending. You know what a

governor is like on a car. It prevents

your car from going over a certain

speed, right? Generous people tend to

put a governor on their spending. They

say I can't spend past this much because

I have to give.

It's self-denial.

It's like I need this much and no more.

I have enough right here.

Greed never says enough. Have you

noticed that when you're struggling with

greed? It's never enough.

But the generous can always say, "This

is enough. This much and no more, and

the rest I give away."

Church, I feel a certain responsibility

to say this to you as your pastor, just

as Paul felt the responsibility to say

this to Corinth as their apostle. Make a

commitment to God as to what you will

give

between you and the Lord. And maybe the

person who's you're asking to hold you

accountable. If you haven't made a

promise to God as to what portion of

your income you should be giving to him,

make that promise. Make that commitment

and then keep it. Honor that promise

every single time. It will shape you

into a generous person. It will change

you from the inside out. It will give

you a greater appreciation for the

spiritual, for the world that you cannot

see yet.

and it will cause you to devalue the

things that are tempting you all the

time.

Some of you have to start small. If

you're new to giving, try giving 1% to

God in his kingdom. Six months later,

try increasing it to 2%. Yes, you'll

have to cut out spending in other areas.

That's part of the deal. Setting a rule,

setting a governor for yourself.

Over time, you will be formed into an

increasingly generous person. And over

time, the more you give, get this, the

more you give, the more you will want to

give.

The more you will want to because it

becomes so fun. It's like it's actually

true when the Bible says it's more

blessed to give than to receive. It's

like God was telling the truth.

Every time you give, you're mocking the

devil. It's one of my favorite things

about giving. Every time you give,

you're mocking the devil who wants more

than anything for you to keep every

penny for yourself because he would like

nothing more than to give you the whole

world but to have you lose your soul. He

wins in that scenario.

Mock him every time you get paid. And he

says, "Keep it. Spend it on yourself."

Say, "No, give it away."

Laugh in his face. Let him know this

power has no money. This money has no

power over me.

I thank God that there were people in

this church 80 years ago who were formed

into generous people. People who

purchased the land beneath our feet.

People who turned this property into a

church. The truth is that we're all

beneficiaries of a previous generation

of generous people. None of us paid for

this property here.

This was a financial burden that we have

not had to carry.

We received it as a gift. gift of from a

a group of Japanese farmers who

sacrificed on our behalf. Most of them

probably had their personal property

taken away from them during the

internment of World War II, but they had

a vision and they worked hard and

sacrificed for it. They could see past

the visible obstacles of their poverty

to the invisible.

They could envision a church on this

hill.

They could envision a church on this

hill a hundred years from when they were

here, reaching this city with the gospel

of Jesus Christ. They strove to be a

blessing to the hurting and a light on

the hill to those who wander in

darkness. I'm sure they dreamed of

giving meaning and purpose to those who

believe life is meaningless and

purposeless.

We get to continue their legacy.

It falls to our generation. West Hills,

it's our turn

to build another building so that the

gospel will be will be preached here for

another 10 generations of children. So

that if Christ delays in 200 years from

now, people will come up this hill on

their hover cars and they'll hear our

great great grandchildren singing Jesus

loves me. This I know for the Bible

tells me so.

and church.

If not for the building, if not for the

children, do it for the sake of your own

soul and the kind of person you're

becoming.

You are being shaped into a certain kind

of person.

What kind of person will you be in 20

years from now?

I love the works of J.R.R. Tolken. I try

not to quote him too much because you

would all think I'm a total nerd.

But this week, I've been really struck

with one aspect of his great tale of The

Lord of the Rings, because it stands in

stark contrast to all the other

mythologies.

All of the other great quest stories are

about going on an adventure to acquire

something, some glory, some treasure,

some prize. Jason and the Argonauts

seeking the golden fleece. Prometheus

stealing fire from the heavens. the

acquiring of golden apples from the

garden of Hesper Hesperities or the

Greeks sailing to Troy to reclaim Helen

of Sparta.

They're all about achieving some some

kind of glory or riches. They're all

about taking

those are the stories we're raised on.

Those are our epics.

In the Lord of the Rings, we have an

epic that is the inverse of all the

other myths.

It's a tale of renunciation.

It's a story of letting go.

The whole plot of the Lord of the Rings

is about denying power rather than using

it. Relinquishing the ring, letting go

of the precious and all of the great

promises that that and being set free

from that crushing burden.

The poet Malcolm Gite observed about the

Lord of the Rings and our generation.

Was there ever a generation that needs

that message more than our generation

which is consuming ourselves to death?

The sickness of our soul is precisely

the sickness of perpetual acquisition

and pouring stuff into a hole that could

never be filled.

And the way out is the way of

renunciation,

the way of letting go.

And of course, Tolken's tale was

inspired by the greatest story, the

deeper story, the true story.

In Philippians 2 6-8,

though Jesus was in the form of God, he

did not count equality with God, a thing

to be grasped. But he emptied himself.

He emptied himself by taking the form of

a servant, being born in the likeness of

men, and being found in human form. He

humbled himself by becoming obedient to

the point of death, even death on a

cross. He emptied himself

When the rich young ruler came to Jesus

and asked what he must do to enter the

kingdom of heaven, Jesus told him, "Give

away all that he has and that he may

have treasure in heaven." Jesus was

speaking from profound experience.

He knows what it's like to give away

everything that he has

for the sake of another.

He could do this. He could become poor

on earth by leaving the riches of

heaven. He could do this because of the

joy that was set before him. Because

Christ knew on the other side of this

short life that he had to endure.

At the other side of this letting go,

there is an eternity of gain, an

eternity of glory, an eternity of being

with the people that he loves in a

purified world.

He does not ask the rich young ruler to

do something costly. He asks him to

delay his gratification.

He's saying not here but there you will

be wealthy to trade earthly riches for

heavenly ones. And Paul does the same

thing with the Corinthians and with us.

You're not losing your money to give it

away in radical generosity. You're

storing it up.

You're storing up for yourself treasure

in heaven. It's what Jim Elliott once

famously said. He is no fool who gives

what he cannot keep to gain what he

cannot lose. Let's pray.