RISE UP AND SHINE
LOVE OF MONEY
DR. JIM DIXON
1 TIMOTHY 6:6
SEPTEMBER 15, 1991
It was an extremely foggy morning on the southern California coast. It was July 4th, 1952. Twenty one miles to the west on Catalina Island, a 34 year old woman named Florence Chadwick was entering the water. She wanted to become the first woman ever to swim the 21 mile straight that separates Catalina Island from the southern California coast. As she began to swim across the ocean, she was accompanied by a few boats. These boats contained her friends, her coach, her mom. They were there to encourage her, there to support her, there to help her if she became needy, there to ward off sharks. The water was icy cold, and as she swam, the fatigue became greater and greater. 15 hours passed. At the end of 15 hours, Florence Chadwick decided to quit. Her mom, her coach, they encouraged her not to quit. They told her that she was almost to the California shoreline, almost there, but she couldn’t swim anymore and she got into the boat. It wasn’t the cold water that made her quit. It wasn’t the extreme fatigue that made her quit. She said afterwards in her testimony to the reporters, that she honestly believed that what made her quit was the fog. The fog was so thick, so dense, she couldn’t see her goal.
Incredibly, she had swam more than 20 miles. She was only a half mile from the California shore, but she couldn’t see the coast. She couldn’t see her goal. She said she just knew that if she could see it, she would’ve made it. Florence Chadwick had already become the first woman ever to swim the English Channel in both directions. But she failed to swim that straight that separates Catalina from the California coast because she couldn’t see her goal.
We all need to see goals. We don’t need foggy goals. We need clear goals. We need to have them set before us. It’s only when we see our goals clearly that we’re able to make the effort necessary. I believe God has set a very clear goal before Cherry Hills Community Church. Physically, that goal is a multifaceted building facility. Geographically, the goal is Highlands Ranch. Spiritually, the goal is to reach as many people, men and women and children for Jesus Christ as we can in the time that is given to us. To reach men and women and boys and girls for Jesus Christ in Denver and in South Denver, and having reached them for Christ to begin to bring them into Christian community and to build them up in Christ. To teach them the things of Christ and send them into the Denver community in ministry.
Now, there are some people in our church who are not willing to support this goal. In some cases it is because the goal is not only physical and geographical and spiritual, the goal is also financial. The goal financially is nine million dollars. That’s what it’s going to take to leave this place and build where we feel God is calling us. Nine million dollars is a lot of money for any church to raise, even for a large church. Our greatest struggle as we seek to reach this goal, the greatest enemy is what the Bible calls “philargyros,” a Greek word, which means the love of money. It’s the love of money that’s going to keep us from reaching this goal if we fail.
Now, the love of money is expressed in the community of Christ in two ways. Sometimes the love of money is expressed in the form of materialism. People live for the accumulation of money and of possessions and things. Certainly, the scriptures warn us regarding materialism. You recall how a man came up to Jesus Christ and said, “Bid my older brother to share the inheritance with me.” Jesus said to the man, “Beware of all covetousness, a man’s life does not consist in the sum of his possessions.” And Jesus went on to tell the story of the rich man who had great wealth, and he accumulated his wealth into barns. And he said, “I’m all set. I have ample wealth, ample possessions laid up for many years. I can take my ease. I have it made.” But Jesus said the man was a fool. He was a fool because Jesus said that very day his soul could be required of him, his life required of him, and the things that he had laid up, whose would they be?
Jesus said, “So shall it be with all who are rich towards themselves and not rich towards God.” It’s the love of money that makes us want to be rich towards ourselves and not rich towards God.
Now, you’ve all heard of John D Rockefeller, born in 1839. Rockefeller was in his youth, very strong, very healthy. He had one goal in his life and he decided that at a very early age, and that goal was to make as much money as possible. To accumulate as much material wealth as possible. He devoted his life to this, all of his energy. He had incredible zeal towards the making of money, and he burned the candle at both ends. He literally spent himself in the pursuit of money and possessions and things. At the age of 33, John D Rockefeller became a millionaire, an incredible accomplishment in the year 1872. At the age of 43, he owned the largest company in the world. That was incredible. At the age of 53, incomprehensibly at the age of 53, John D Rockefeller became the first billionaire in the history of the world, the richest man in the world.
He had incomprehensible possessions, unbelievable stuff. Yet he was miserable. He was absolutely miserable. He had some kind of a strange disease that caused the hair of his head to fall out. Of course, many of us have that disease. But not only did the hair of his head fall off, but the hair and his eyelashes and his eyebrows that began to fall off and his face became sunken and his color turned ash and gray. He was not able to digest food. Though he made more than a million dollars a week, he was only able to eat milk and crackers. He was hated in Pennsylvania. By day and by night, he had to be accompanied by guards. He had long since ceased to smile. He was only 53 years old. The doctors told him that he would not live another year. They told him he would not live past age 54. Two newspapers had already written the obituaries that they planned on printing at the occasion of his death.
But something happened that year to John D Rockefeller. By the testimony of many people, it is said that John D Rockefeller that year became a Christian, committed his life to Christ. By his own testimony, Rockefeller said that he knew he had laid up treasures on earth and was absolutely poverty stricken towards heaven. He had been rich towards himself and not rich towards God. He began to give money away. His heart began to change, and he began to give money away. Now you need to understand John D Rockefeller had always tithed. He’d been brought up in a religious family. He’d always been taught to tithe. He tithed his first dollar, he tithed his first hundred dollars and he tithed his first million dollars. But he realized, and he came to see that in light of all the money God enabled him to make, tithing just wasn’t enough. He began to give money away by the millions. He began to give it to Christian churches and he gave it to Christian causes and he gave it to the poor, millions of dollars. By the most conservative of estimates, he gave 550 million dollars away in the subsequent years and most believed that he gave more than 750 million dollars away. Before his death, he established the Rockefeller Foundation and he seeded that with 100 million dollars.
A smile had come back to his face. Life was good. He didn’t die at age 54. Incredibly, he died at age 98. Now, I don’t mean to stand here and lead you to believe that John D Rockefeller didn’t from that point on struggle with materialism. He did. But I think the reality is that all of us struggle with materialism. All of us. We live in a blessed nation and we all have been blessed by global standards with a great deal. If we don’t all struggle with materialism, we all need to struggle with materialism. John D Rockefeller came to understand it’s only when you give, you begin to experience the joy of Christ. It’s only when you begin to give you begin to have the blessings of Christ. God has said, “Give and it shall be given.” God has said, “Give and I’ll open up the windows of heaven.” God has said, “Give. If the purse seems to have holes in it and you never have enough, give.” God has said, “Give abundantly. You’ll reap abundantly.” It’s the love of money that keeps us from doing this. You see, I can’t tell you what to do with your money. And if I tell you what to do with your money, what does it matter? Who am I? But God, God can tell us what to do with our money. And God says, “Give.”
I’m sure there’s not a billionaire in this room. I’m also certain that there are many, or at least numerous millionaires, probably more than we would care to admit. When we add up all of our assets, there are a number of millionaires in our church. Of course, there are also a number of people who financially do not have much. We cannot all give the same amount, but we can all make the same sacrifices. That’s what God is calling upon us to do. For some of us, that’ll mean giving five or $10,000 to the future of Cherry Hills Community Church. For others that’ll mean $50,000. We honestly believe that the spirit of God is going to touch a few individuals in the life of our church to give gifts of $1 million. We don’t know who you are. God knows. But we believe that God’s going to call some people to stand up, to rise up and to make a gift of that magnitude.
Well, I’ve been asked this morning to share my family’s testimony about what we have felt led of God to do for the future of Cherry Hills Community Church. This is really awkward for me because I’ve always felt, I’m sure most of you feel like it’s a very personal thing. I know Chuck and Eileen felt like that. We feel like that too. Barb and I have really prayed about this and we’ve struggled for weeks and months over what God wanted us to do for the vision that God has set before us and for the future of the church. We knew that it needed to be something special. We prayed about it and we decided to give a certain amount of money and we felt comfortable with that. Then, when we realized that we felt comfortable with it, we knew that that was wrong. We knew that God wanted us to not feel comfortable.
We knew God wanted us to make a sacrifice. It’s really tough because I think there’s so many things you look at regarding your needs and your family needs and your future. So many things you look at. Barb and I have felt led to commit $20,000 to the capital stewardship campaign in these next three years. We’ve also felt led to commit $25,000 to the general operating budget during the next three years because it doesn’t make any sense to build a building unless we’re providing for the ministry that must take place inside of it. I think I can say that $45,000 for our family qualifies for what the Bible calls hilarious giving. When we look at the reality of our life, our kids’ lives, it’s not easy. But we believe with all of our heart what Jesus said when he said, “Seek first my kingdom. Seek first my kingdom.” Really and truly that’s what we’re asking each and every one of you to do in this church, to seek first His kingdom. The need is great. God is greater.
Love of money is the great enemy and sometimes it’s expressed in materialism. If there’s rampant materialism in any of our lives, we will not respond. Barb and I were convicted that there was more than a little materialism in our lives. The love of money is not only expressed in materialism, but there’s a second reality I wanted to mention this morning. The love of money is also expressed in what might be called religionism. Perhaps you’ve never heard of religionism.
I think whenever you look in Christian communities and there’s a substantial love of money, you’ll always find religionism. If you look in the dictionary, you will find that religionism means pretended spirituality. Religionism means false piety, religiosity. Whenever there is the love of money, that’s what you find: religionism, pretended spirituality. It’s expressed in so many ways.
If you look at the 12th chapter of the Gospel of John, you will see an incredible account of how our Lord Jesus and His disciples went to the little village of Bethany near Jerusalem. In that village of Bethany near Jerusalem, Jesus and the disciples joined with Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Jesus had recently raised Lazarus from the dead. They all sat down to have a great meal together. Martha prepared the meal and Martha served the meal. Then Mary did an amazing thing. She took a jar of ointment. It was incredibly costly. It was worth more than one year’s salary. It probably represented all of her savings because in biblical times people invested their money in these jars of ointment because they would appreciate in value. It probably represented everything she had. She took it, equal to more than a year’s income, and she took it and she poured it out on the Son of God, anointing the feet of Christ.
One person became very angry. That person’s name was Judas. Judas Iscariot, very angry, said, “This is wrong.” He said, “The money shouldn’t be used like that. This ointment should be sold and the money should be given to the poor.” That sounded so right and that sounded so spiritual. But you see, it was pretended spirituality. It was false piety. It was religiosity and it was religionism. It was Jesus who rebuked Judas. Jesus, who said “Mary has done a wonderful thing.” And it was the Apostle John who records that Judas really didn’t care about the poor. He didn’t care about the poor. It was pretended spirituality, feigned piety. What he really loved was money.
John tells us that it was Judas who was the treasurer for that little band of disciples. He kept the company purse. He wanted the ointment to be sold so the money would’ve come into the treasury and he could have pilfered some of it before it was distributed out. Religionism caused by the love of money.
Now I know I need to be very careful. What I feel led to share with you is not easy to share. I feel like I’m simply seeking to be obedient. But I believe with all my heart that we have some people in our church who in their love of money are practicing religionism, pretended spirituality. There are some people who say, “Well this is wrong. Building a new building is wrong. Nine million dollars is wrong. It’s too much money. That money ought to be given to the inner city. That money ought to be given to the poor.” And I would say this, if you really have a burden for the inner city, and if you really have a burden for the poor, if the magnitude of sacrificial giving that we are asking you to partake in, you are willing to go and give to the inner city and the poor do it. God bless you, God bless you.
But you see, if you are saying nine million dollars is too much and you don’t really care about the inner city and you don’t really care about the poor and you’re not going to take a big sacrificial gift and send it down to the inner city, then that’s religionism and that’s pretended spirituality. That’s false piety, and it is dangerous.
Now, we care about poor people and we care for the inner city. We have in times past and we will in times to come give to the poor and to the inner city. But you see, the call of Cherry Hills Community Church is to the suburbs. We know our call. We are called to South Denver. Ten years ago when Jesus Christ raised this church up we knew our call and we know it today. We’re not called to the inner city and we’re not called to the poor. We’re called to people in South Denver. That’s our call. As surely as Paul was called to the Gentiles and Peter to the Jews, we know our call. Jesus Christ loves poor people and Jesus Christ loves rich people. Jesus Christ loves people. Our call is to these people in South Denver. It’s our call. The call of God is upon us. We know our mission. We believe there are thousands of people that God wants to bring to His Son through Cherry Hills Community Church.
If we have a heart after God’s own heart and we love people like He loves people, and we believe that indeed that is the call in obedience to the great commission, we’re going to make sacrifices. Now, there’s people who say, and you may have heard this too, I hear it, “You know, I don’t believe in giving to bricks and mortar.” When I hear people say that “I don’t believe in giving to bricks and mortar,” that’s religionism if I’ve ever heard it. I’ve never seen anyone who didn’t believe in giving to bricks and mortar who applied that to his own life. People who don’t believe in giving to bricks and mortar, you don’t see them living around campfires and dwelling in tents. They spend money for bricks and mortar for their own family. Why not the family of God? Throughout the Christian centuries, the people of Christ have had to build for the needs of the saints and to reach a world in darkness. The cost has often been great. “I don’t believe in bricks and mortar, I only give to ministry.” That sounds spiritual, but it’s feigned piety and it’s hypocrisy.
You know, I really love this church. I mean I think this church is so great. I mean, when Barb and I go on vacation and we attend another church, I thank God for Cherry Hills Community Church. I mean, the Holy Spirit is on our church and He’s anointed us. This is not cause for pride, but for grateful thanksgiving. I love our congregation. I think we have a very special people and you are special. I believe in this hour we will respond. It’s not easy to share a rebuke. I think we understand that there’s a lot of people in our church who are not looking for a reason to give. They’re looking for a reason not to give. They’re looking for a reason not to give because of “philargyros,” because of the love of money. We want to ask you today to, as much as possible with an open heart, come before the throne of God in prayer and see if God doesn’t want you to give a gift like you’ve never given before.
You see, our band returned from Russia, you know that. I can’t wait for you to hear their words. I can’t wait for you to hear their testimony of what God did and how the Holy Spirit was poured out on that ministry. The miracles. I mean, you go through the Book of Acts and you see miracles, you know, miracle after miracle as people come to Christ and through the most incredible circumstances. You think, “Boy, does God do that anymore? Did he just do that 2,000 years ago or does He do it today? Does He do it now?” They came back knowing God does it today. As God just raised up when they were trapped and needed to be somewhere and there was no transportation, God would just provide a bus and a bus driver in the most incredible circumstances. When they were in crowds where the mobs were unbelievable, and there were mobs trying to get those bibles and it was physically dangerous, and sometimes when they honestly feared for their safety, at the last moment, God would provide police who maybe knew somebody that was on the team that was from Russia, but helping the team. The police would come and they would control the crowds and the police, the Soviet police would then help hand out the Bibles to thousands of people as Dick and people would share the gospel and it would be so simple. Sometimes they would think, “Oh, that wasn’t very good.” But you see God’s great and the Holy Spirit would move and thousands of people would accept Christ.
Miracles happened. As they came back, their burden is for America. As they came back, their burden is for Denver. Their burden is for South Denver. One after another, they said, “It’s just so exciting to think what God might do here.” You see, we’re in darkness. Do you realize America’s in darkness? There are thousands of people out there in Denver who are clueless. I mean, they’re clueless about Jesus Christ. They don’t know who He is. They don’t know what the gospel even says. They’ve not rejected what they have not heard. The call of God is on our church and we can see miracles happen. This is the hour. Our time has come. It’s not just for our generation, but for generations to come, what God wants to do through Cherry Hills Community Church.
Sometimes I think the greatest sin, one of the greatest sins in America is sermon listening. Now, I believe in listening to sermons. I hope you listen, but I think one of the greatest sins in America is sermon listening. People just go to church. They listen to sermons and that’s it. They think that somehow if they endure these sermons, God’s pleased. You see, God doesn’t want us to just sermon listen. God wants to change lives. He wants to change hearts. He wants to change behavior. That’s what sermons are all about. Nobody knows more than me what a flawed vessel I am. I know my fallenness and I mean, apart from Christ, I have nothing to say. But if I didn’t believe that God speaks, God speaks through the proclamation of His Word, not just in this pulpit, but all over America, God speaks. If I didn’t believe it, I wouldn’t preach. When I preach, I feel like God is speaking to me as well as you and wanting me to change as well as you.
So today, we want to ask you to search your heart and to see what God is saying to you. Maybe you’ve been against this, but just to think, what if this is an ego? What if this is an extravagance? What if this is the plan of God, the will of God for the people of God at Cherry Hills Community Church? What if God is really wanting to do this? What part are you called of God to play in this ministry at this time? Well, let’s close with a word of prayer.