“Shiny Gods: Heart Giving” Matthew 7: 7-12 Lev 19:9-10

We are now in our final week of our sermon series focusing on stewardship. I can almost hear some of you taking a deep sigh of relief - we’ve made it though the talk about money until next year. But I hope that this sermon series has been challenging to all of us - a call to examine our own hearts and lives to see if we are giving our very best to God or if there are idols blocking our way. 

Todays scripture lesson found in the Gospel of Matthew is one that is memorized by many folks - or at least memorized in part. “Ask and it will be given to you, search and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you.” And we stop there. This teaching leads us to believe at times that God is like a cosmic Santa Clause, giving us whatever we want, when this is not the case at all. 

To the parents and grandparents in the room - do you give the children in your life everything they ever ask for? Probably not. Why? Because kids, at some point, need to learn to be stewards of what they have. When we were little, my brothers and I were given an allowance for doing chores around the house. We could choose what to spend that money on. Now, I will say that my parent and grandparents provided for us the things that we would never dream of asking for - basic necessities like socks and underware, but if there was a toy we desired then we had to save up our own money.

Even around special occasions such as Christmas we understood that the money was not endless. My parents were never ones to make sure that each of us had the same amount of gifts under the tree. As we got older we came to understand that there was a set amount of money for each of us. If we asked for more expensive things, then we would have fewer gifts under the tree. And even then, we weren’t going to get everything we ask for.

Yet, sometimes we treat our prayer lives like God should give us what we want, when we want it. I have heard story after story about people who have turned away from the faith because God didn’t answer their prayers the way they wanted. But when I hear such stories, I wonder if we have missed the point of prayer as the local church. God, like a good parent, supplies our basic needs. God, like a good parents, often lavishes more upon us then we realize. However, we, as God’s children, do not have the right to demand that we be given something. Because some times its not in our best interest - I don’t know about you, but there are plenty of prayers in my life that I’m glad God didn’t answer the way I wanted. And sometimes its not in God’s timing. And sometimes, God wants us to remember that we have been gifted with the ability to work in order to be able to earn instead of demand.

Parents and grandparents, how does it make you feel when the important children in your life demand that you get them something? While I’m not a parent, I know that the times I have had kids whine, demand, or plead with me for something it didn’t make me feel very good. Especially when looked at in the light of everything else that I and others had provided for them. How do you think God feels when we use our prayers and this particular scripture verse to demand instead of asking that God’s will be done? The scripture goes on to ask if anyone who loved a child amongst us would give a stone when they ask for bread or a snake when they ask for fish? Of course not! If we as humans give good gifts to our children, how much more so does God lavish good gifts upon us. 

Sometimes I think we need to do a little less demanding and a lot more taking into account our blessings. Rev. Mike Slaughter states, “What we do with what we have makes all the difference in the world.” We are called to take time to make an account of our lives - to see the wealth God has provided and what we have done with it. Now wealth isn’t just money - its time, treasures, talents, and gifts. I was once asked what it means to bear fruit and described it this way - fruit is what comes when we use what we have for the Kingdom of God. What fruit are you bearing, brothers and sisters? How are you investing all of who you are and what you have in the work of God around you? Scripture tells us time and time again that we aren’t supposed to fire and foremost worry about whether we have enough stuff, instead we are to put God’s Kingdom first, which is really about what this misquoted scripture verse is beckoning us towards. Its not about putting our will first and asking God to make all of our desires happen - instead its about seeking after the Kingdom of God and having it opened unto you! Is the Kingdom of God the first desire in your life?

When we start to seek after the Kingdom of God, we find that God’s heart is for people. In fact, thats the entire point of the cross is it not? That broken people could find their way to God through Jesus? God didn’t want us to have to pay our own price for all of our brokenness and sin, so Jesus died for us, paying the price. God loves the world. And if God loves people, we are to love people as well. Not just those who look like us or have the same job we do or worship at the same church. The heart of God is to love all of the world, even those who are different from us at first glance. 

If we love people like God loves them, then our work shouldn’t just provide for ourselves but for those around us as well. The book of Leviticus is filled with laws from everything to what to eat to how to farm. In today’s scripture passage, the Israelites are instructed to not gather food at the very edges of their fields - instead they are to leave a margin for the poor and the orphan and the widow and foreigner to come and glean. They were allowed to harvest everything except that margin or perimeter.

We too are supposed to leave a margin in our lives for the poor and the needy. Something that we intentionally set aside to give to those in need. For me its an extra 25$ per month that goes into a fund to support organizations that are doing tremendous work in ministering to people in their brokenness. But that’s just me. What is your margin that reminds you how God has blessed you so that you can bless others? 

The truth is that we, as Christians in the local church, are the hands of God used to reach out and comfort a hurting world. Yet, far too many Christians don’t even make giving to the local church a priority, which makes it hard for the church to reach out as it should. In 2009, a survey found that the portion of income given to the Protestant church as 2.38 percent. That’s less than 3 percent brothers and sisters and no where close to ten percent tithe. Who could the church bless if we all made it a priority to work towards a tithe? Who could we reach out to if we left an additional margin in our lives and budgets for the poor and the needy? What would our lives be like if we sought first after the Kingdom of God as a true act of worship, instead of so many shiny gods that get in our way?

Here’s the thing. We can’t change the past. What’s done is done. But we can make decisions to change the way we view and treat money, here, now, today. We can right here and now decide to start working towards a tithe and to set aside a margin for ministering to the poor and needy. And the way we put our decisions into action can change the future. Let us worship God with all we are and all we have, here and now, dear friends. Amen.