Greentree Community Church

It’s been a while since I started down this path, but I think its becoming clearer and clearer how much money fails us as a “god” in the crucial moments of our lives.  For many who have seen the collapse of the security and comfort that money affords, they now turn to the government.  In the eyes of some, the government is the great rescuer, the true god who can resurrect or bring back from the dead the pantheon of other gods—status, comfort, security, possessions, pride.  Of course, the government too is showing us just how little power they have.  For 6 months, they have been spending (or in some cases printing!) money by the truck load, running up massive deficits, and encouraging inflation, but the tide has not been turned.  The economy is arguably worse off today than it would be if no significant government action had been taken. 

The mounting loss of trust and confidence in the “gods” of our culture means that a toppling is occurring.  That in which so many have trusted for their satisfaction and security is demonstrably bankrupt and without power to give life.  The path of meaning, purpose, and direction thousands have followed looks remarkably like a dead end. 

The only good news about dead ends, of course, is that they mean new beginnings.  When you’re on a trip and hit a dead end, you must confess that you have gone the wrong way, turn around and look for the right path.  As other paths become dead ends, it seems that Jesus differentiates Himself among the “gods.”  Jesus is like the secret opening at each dead end—when one path shows itself deficient, that deficiency merely highlights the very sufficiency Jesus longs to prove.  Consider a few things:

When talking about money, Jesus tells us, “Fear not little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom (Luke 12.32).”  Notice how different Jesus is than the other “gods” we love:

1. God is not an employer; He is a Father.  This means that God is a King—he’s in control of all things, but He exercises His authority with relational love, joy, and freedom.  His goal is for you to be free, not bound.  At His essence is a pleasure in your joy.
2. God does not pay you; He gives freely.  Employers pay, bosses demand, gods take, and slave-masters whip, but God gives gifts freely and with ecstatic joy.  So God doesn’t give us a paycheck for our efforts but offers us amazing gifts as a demonstration of His goodness.  With “gods” like money, status, and pride, we’re constantly having to slave for them.  They constantly take from us and give us increasingly meager rewards for our service.  In contrast God gives freely and promises the ever increasing greatness of His rewards.
3. God does not begrudge His gifts; He takes pleasure in them.  In fact, Jesus says it’s His good pleasure to give you a Kingdom.  God actually delights in providing for you.  In another place, Jesus commands us to “lay up treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.”  He offers us a better, more rewarding investment, a place where the returns are always 10,000% and nothing can ever diminish them.
4. God does not castigate you for your frailty and mistakes; He serves you in spite of them.  Notice that He calls us “little flock,” signaling a helpless band of small sheep.  He knows we will fail and that our sinful brokenness will stand in the way.  Yet, God takes joy in being the protector and giver to such a straggling band of misfits. 

If this is a true picture of God, and I believe it is, then we can be free of fear (“Fear not”) that the downed economy brings and we can put our time, talents, and treasure in places where the rate of return is unfailing.  God is different than the “gods” of our culture—He will not harshly demand but He will freely give.  For many of you, this economy has brought you to a dead end of sorts, and I wonder if you’d consider looking past the dead end to a “secret opening” which Jesus gladly holds wide for you, an opening that would lead to the true God and to abundant life (Psalm 16.11, John 10.10)?