Love God · Love People
Loving God with Our Strength – Week 6
Bryan Jones
May 21, 2023
1. Introduction
(Genesis 1:31; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Matthew 6:19-20)
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NIV)
4Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Meod (me-oad) Occurs 300 times in the Bible. Now meod doesn’t translate to strength. In fact, it’s really only translated strength 1 time in the Shema prayer.
Meod is best translated to mean, very or much…
It’s an adverb that intensifies the meaning of other words… Very this or very that…
Genesis 1:31 (NLT) page 4
31 Then God looked over all He had made, and He saw that it was very good!
It means to love God with our muchness. Which is all of our resources, everything we have.
It’s interesting the ancient Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible translate this word to mean wealth…
The point is it’s wealth, it’s your stuff, it’s your energy… it’s all of us… but today… I want to spend time really diving deep it what it means to love God with our veryness, our resources and specifically zoom into everyone’s favorite subject, money... now why money?
I recently heard the sobering story of Warren Buffett who is the richest man in the world. One day when he was 10 years old, he went on a business trip with his father. While he was on this business trip, his dad was meeting with some wealthy clients. They were at this nice restaurant lounge area. Warren said that one of the guys was picking out the type of tobacco leaf he wanted for his cigar with the waiter, and then, the waiter rolled it up for him and lit it. Warren Buffett said, “Whatever gets me that kind of life, I want that.” He decided that he wanted to be the richest man in the world at that point. This vision of money took hold of him at 10 years old…
Side point… Kevin Nunnery, our High School Pastor was telling me this story with his 4-year-old. They are doing chores… and then he goes with his kid, and they give the quarters at BrookwoodKiDs… isn’t that amazing.
But the reason this story of Warren Buffett gripped me so much is that so many people don’t know the vision of their life. The world will write a story for you… if you are a teenager or senior adult, this applies because if you don’t have a theology of money and a vision for your life, you will just fall prey to the one this world writes…
Do you know that in the Bible there are only two things you are supposed to run from…
Everything else we fight, but these things we get sucked into and it becomes a black hole that consumes us if we aren’t careful…
If our only desire is to make a bunch of money so we can retire comfortably and enjoy a bunch of things in this world, then our vision is no different from every non-Christian around…
Matthew 6:19-20 (NIV)
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
Listen, the new watch, the new car, the new home, the season tickets, the boat, the new job aren’t going really fill you up. It’s not going to fundamentally alter your life…
That’s why Jesus says not to store stuff here… He wouldn’t have to say this if people naturally had a larger vision… that’s why He says don’t store up stuff.
I recently heard the best definition of treasure… do know what it is…
2. Treasure = junk waiting to happen.
(Matthew 6:20)
The pyramids were built so that people could take their stuff with them into the afterlife… which is ridiculous… but we have the closest thing to that as Americans with overflowing storage units.
So, Jesus says the vision of just acquiring stuff and holding onto it, and then, one day it becoming junk is too small. Jesus is saying a life of holding a corner office, or acquiring a particular lifestyle is just too small…
He wants us to wake up to the reality of His kingdom… notice again STORE up your treasures in Heaven…
Listen, it’s amazing to have a Ph.D.… every time I walk into someone’s office, and they have that, I admire it… the hard work, the sacrifice…
The only way you can ever be truly generous with your life, your money, your resources… is to have a Ph.D. in your identity in Jesus…
The amount of time we put into getting a Ph.D. or our professions, Jesus says we need to put into understanding, to becoming a Ph.D. into our identity so that we will give our lives away because this ISN’T IT…
Do you know who you are in Jesus?
I have never not once, met someone who gets this and isn’t generous with their money… If God has been this generous to give you all this… if everything you have is from God, how could you not give back?
And I tell you the reason, if we don’t get this, we don’t give generously…
Matthew 6:21 (NIV)
21“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
If your heart treasures money or possessions, it’s going to be hard to give generously. But if God is first in your life, you will give generously… people hear this and go don’t make this God thing about money… but Jesus literally says…
3. What you treasure your heart will follow.
(Matthew 6:21)
If you value money way too, much how do you deal with that issue? Honestly, give… the more you continue to give, the more your heart will begin to change.
We can say all day long that God is first but if He’s not first in our finances, then He isn’t first! That’s why part of the Greatest Commandment is to love God with your strength… love God with your muchness.
Let me illustrate this… everybody if you would take out your wallet… alright everybody hold it in the air… now just give it to the person next to you… NOT your spouse… give it to the next person… NOW, got it? I want you to TITHE… give whatever is your heart’s desire… Some of you are thinking this is going to be my biggest tithe yet…
But here’s the deal it would be easy for you to tithe that money… why, because it’s not yours…
If you really believed everything in this world was God’s and we are just holding onto it… we will be people of generosity….
4. Three ways to approach money:
(Matthew 6:22-25; Luke 21:1-4; Revelation 1:5)
- What’s mine is mine = selfishness.
- What’s yours is mine = stealing.
- What’s mine is God’s = stewardship.
When we were moving here and sold our house, I remember driving down this road and God asked me what I was going to give Him from the sale of the house. I said, “Well, I hadn’t planned on anything.” So, I sat and talked and prayed I felt like I was supposed to give 10% of the interest we had made on our house to God. I was glad to do it but there was a part of me that was going, “We could really use this money. We are moving.” When we bought our new house here, we did a ton of renovations. Well, I tell you this… we were bidding out for someone to work on our bathroom and got a couple of rough quotes. One of them came in 2 to 2 ½ times less than what the original was. But here’s the thing… the total of the project was the exact amount we tithed…
Because everything is God’s, and you can’t outgive a generous God. He might not bless you finically if you give, but maybe relationally, maybe emotionally, maybe in your health… I didn’t give that money because I expected God to give me something in return. It comes out of the overflow of a transformed heart. But for whatever reason, He always continues to bless His people…
That’s why we talk about tithe. It bothers me when people talk bad about tithing. Because Jesus was God’s tithe…
Revelation 1:5 (NIV)
and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
It says Jesus was the firstborn. He was God’s seed sent to die… God gave His first and His best to us… so we don’t give out of obligation but opportunity because we have been richly blessed…
You have to make a commitment now to start giving… even if you don’t have a lot to give. In some ways, it becomes harder the more you get… you need to take a step even today to develop those muscles…
Inflation, I can’t give… if you don’t start now, you never will. We believe God can do more with 90% than 100%
Luke 21:2-3 (NLT) page 846
Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins.[a]3 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them.”
Jesus goes on to say…
Matthew 6:22-23 (NIV)
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,[c] your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy,[d]your whole body will be full of darkness.”
An evil eye was a phrase in use among the ancient Jews to describe an envious or greedy person who would do nothing to help a brother or sister in need…
Now, in some stores in Israel and Arab countries, you will see necklaces with a hand and eye… usually, it will be an amulet that they believe will ward off evil spirits and forces… particularly the evil eye…
Now again, this was more used in Jewish culture to describe a greedy or envious person… that’s why Jesus says if your eye is good, meaning you’re generous, your whole body will be filled with light…
… If we spend all day looking at social media of other people’s stuff, or tv shows and we start to become jealous and compare ourselves… So, open up the Bible and fix your eyes on people who have been captured by a greater vision… Start going, “Hey, I want to be like Peter here,” or “I want to be like Gideon,” or like Anna or Mary…
Matthew 6:25 (NIV)
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Rich people are bad – poor people are good.
The Bible distinguished between greedy and generous…
What you find is there are some greedy rich people, just like there are some greedy poor people. And there are some generous rich people like there are some generous poor people…
I have a friend in Chicago who wanted to come work in ministry. I told her I didn’t think she was supposed to… God had wired her to make money. She makes money and distributes wealth… that is a gift… we need you to make as much money as you can and give it back to the kingdom…
5. Loving God with your strength means you’re taking a step in your giving.
While Hayley comes out to sing this song, sit and reflect…
Pray for the offering.
First Things First - Hayley
My kids greet me with a gift… what that does to my heart… what that does to the Father’s heart, the heart of God when His kids show up ready to give…
Pray and ask God to make you a generous person.