C242 11/20/60
© Project Winsome International, 2000

YOU CAN TAKE IT WITH YOU
Dr. John Allan Lavender
Mt. 6:19-21

The other week I was working my way through a pile of research material which had stacked up on my desk. In the midst of it I found a quote which started a whole series of ideas in motion. I'd like to begin my message with it today. It's from the pen of Jacob Prins:

"Ordinarily we ask only one question instead of two when we think in terms of our possessions. We ask, 'What will my possessions do for me?' The deeper, more pertinent question is, 'What are my possessions doing to me?'

Do I control them, or do they dominate and control me? Material possessions can do things forus. They can also do great things to us. Much depends upon whether or not we are willing and ready to place these possessions in the hands of the Lord, for Him to use when and where and as He will."

Does that speak to you? It does to me! As a child of the depression, who along with many of you, experienced at least some of the privations of poverty, I have been particularly susceptible to the enticements of material possessions. I confess to you this morning that one of the major struggles in my own life has been that of trying to keep "things" in proper perspective.

Like Paul I must say, "I do not claim to have apprehended (or succeeded) but I press on!" When I point my finger at you this morning, I hope you will remember there are three fingers and a thumb pointing at me. In matters of stewardship, as in all matters relating to abundant living, we are in this thing together, you and I. I don't think of myself as your example, or even your guide, but as a fellow-traveler who knows the Guide. I want you to know him, too, so we can follow in his footsteps together.

When it comes to this matter of money, we find we have something in common with every Christian who has ever lived. From the year 1 A.D. until now, Mr. and Mrs. Christian have been confronted with a series of questions and choices regarding the use of their money.

This was a problem with the first disciples, and to resolve it they appointed one of their number to hold the purse. In the early days of the Christian Church the leaders "chaffed and worried over finances." The deacons often spent a good share of their time raising money for the poor. Even so "spiritual" a person as Saint Paul was obliged to give consideration to so mundane a thing as church finances. Having finished a glorious utterance concerning the resurrection:
"Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?"
He goes on almost immediately to say,
"Now concerning the collection!"

What an anticlimax, you say. What an incongruity! Not at all. As Robert McCracken points out:
"Christianity is a religion notable for the tremendous stress it places on giving. The central assertion of Christianity about God is that he so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son for its redemption. The Christian's rule of conduct must be summed up in the dictum of Jesus, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' Christianity make giving sacramental, a spiritual act, as truly religious as praise, or prayer, or preaching."

Whether it be giving yourself, or the giving of your substance, the act of giving is the inevitable consequence of your encounter with Jesus Christ. The acid test of your Christian faith is both the amount and the spirit of your giving.

The Amount Of Your Giving
One of the fascinations of New Testament study lies in discovering the kind of people to whom Jesus was drawn. They were an interesting lot. They were people who were not afraid of sacrifice. People who were willing to go the second mile. People who gave of themselves and their substance with an affection and abandonment that bordered on extravagance.

There was the widow who put into the treasure all she had.
There was the young woman with the costly perfume who poured it over the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair.
There was the little kid who gave his meager lunch of five loaves and two fishes to feed the multitude.

These were people with that "something extra." They let their heart run their head. There was a kind of prodigality and extravagance about their giving and Jesus loved them for it. And it was this quality He was constantly urging upon His disciples:
"What do ye more than others?" he asked them.
"Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven," He
reminded them.

He didn't want disciples who were calculating and careful and cautious for fear that they might give too much. He wanted people who knew no half-measures and who feared nothing but their own limitations.

One of the touching stories to come out of the conflict in Viet Nam is about a soldier who went into the battlefield, where shells were falling, to rescue his wounded friend. His superior officer gave him permission to go, but added, "It isn't worth it. You buddy must be dead by now. And if you go out there, you'll be wounded or killed yourself."

The lad went anyway. He found his friend, hoisted him on his shoulder and brought him back behind the lines. At thelast moment he, too, was wounded by an enemy bullet. The officer dragged him to safety and said, "I told you it wasn't worth it. Your friend is dead, and you're badly wounded."

"But it was worth it, sir," the soldier protested. "It was worth it. When I got to him he was still alive. And the last thing he said was, 'Jim, I knew you'd come.'"

It was that touch of "something extra," that sense of abandonment which comes from deep affection and loyalty, that Jesus loved and wanted in His disciples. He wants it in us, too.

A moment ago I said the acid test of your Christian faith is both the amount and spirit of your giving. My authority for that statement is none other than Jesus himself. Listen again to those quotes I took from Him a moment ago:
"What do ye more than others?"
"Except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees ye shall
not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."

Now the scribes and Pharisees were committed to giving a definite proportion of their income to God. They had been taught from their early youth that the tithe, or a tenth of their possessions, belonged to Him. They had learned from the Old Testament prophets that if they did not give a tenth they were literally robbing God. And so the scribes were exceedingly careful not to fail in the practice of tithing. And Jesus praised them for this careful keeping of the law! "You pay tithes," He said, "this ye ought to have done!"

Jesus recognized the importance of proportionate giving. He affirmed the regularizing of a man's stewardship by the setting aside of the first tenth of his income for the work of the Kingdom of God. Jesus did not repudiate tithing. He blessed it and extended it! "For except your righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees."

Here we come to what Dr. Louis Evans calls the challenge of the sliding scale. Or, as Paul puts it in I Corinthians 16:2, giving "as God has prospered" us. The larger our income the smaller percentage of it we need for ourselves, and the larger percentage we are pleased and privileged to give to spiritual things.

Zacchaeus, about whom we read in the Bible, was prosperous enough to say, "Half of all I have I will give to the poor." He was able to give 50% because he could live on 50%.

R.G. LeTourneau, the famed American Industrialist, has reached the place where he now gives 90% of his income to the work of Christ and keeps 10% for himself.

There are many who double and triple tithe, not because they have to, but because they want to as an expression of their love to God and their gratitude for his blessing upon them.

Last Sunday I said the Lavender had met in family council, and by vote, decided to accept a double tithe as the standard of our giving in 1960. I did not mean to suggest, and I hope I did not convey the impression we have always given a double tithe. We haven't. There have been a few times in the past when we have done so, and, all Glory to God our faithful provider, there have been a time or two when we went beyond 20%.. But, a double tithe will be our goal and the standard of our giving for the year to come.

In telling you this, I didn't mean to imply we expect this of you. We don't! We expect this of us. We think God expects this of us because our church faces tremendous challenges in the coming year. This means all of us in general, and the Lavenders in particular, must do more than ever, because the responsibility of leaders to lead.

I wish it were economically possible for us to lead in fact, that is, in the actual number of dollar given. However, this is impossible because we could never match the giving potential of many of our people. Therefore, we can only try to lead in spirit. Hopefully this will demonstrate to you, our beloved church family, that we are giving something more than lip service to our responsibility as your parsonage family.

Since I made that statment last Sunday, some of you who have contacted me with questions. One of those you have raised is, "Do you plan to give 20% of your income before, or after, taxes?"
The answer is before taxes. We began tithing when I was a student in seminary working for the Oakland Tribune. My salary at that time was $40.00 a week and our tithe was $4.00. Later, the government decided it would be to their advantage -- they tried to convince me it was to my advantage,too, unsuccessfully I might say!-- if they withheld my income tax in advance. While my check was smaller, my tithe remained the same because my income remained the same. The only thing that changed was the manner in which we paid our taxes. Over the years we have continued,to calculate our tithe on income prior to taxes.

Another question that has been asked is, "Do you mean that you plan to give 20% of just your salary?" The answer to that question is no. As most of you know, our income is in five different categories. In addition to my salary we are given a house in which to live, and the utilities are paid for us. In calculating our tithe we figure in the fair rental value of the parsonage. Then, in addition to salary and housing allowance, there is some incidental personal income which comes from weddings and funerals fees. The sum total of these three provide my actual income.

I am also given a car allowance and a retirement benefit. However, I do not tithe my car allowance because it is, in fact, an expense account which repays me, in part, for the cost of operating my car on church business. Nor do I tithe the retirement benefit because it is money I do not see. If I live to be sixty five, my retirement benefit will become the source of our income and we will tithe it at that time. Our tithe, then, is based upon a combination of salary, housing allowance and incidental personal income.

Our basic pledge to the church for 1960 will be $1,300 for the year. This is considerably more that a tenth of my income as I have described it above. In addition, there will be our family's Sunday School offerings, and the cash contributions we make to the Youth, Women and Men's groups. There are also gifts to the YWCA, Cancer Fund, Red Cross and the other community concerns to which we all love to give.

Furthermore, the Board of Deacons very graciously allows me to conduct several "Project Winsome" programs each year in various churches for which an honorarium in offered. Instead of accepting personal payment for these Winsome Way events, the entire sum, which I expect will amount to about $1,000 this coming year, will be paid directly to our Baptist schools and seminaries about which I am greatly concerned, and to other missionary causes which are close to my heart. Combined with God's tithe and our offerings to and through our church, this means our total giving to various aspects of God's Kingdom for the 1960 will exceed $2400.

We do not feel this is in any sense a burden. I share these facts with you this morning, not to boast, for this is no cause for boasting. As Christians we have only one reason to glory, and that's in the cross of Christ. I share these details with you because of the questions which have been asked since I made that announcement last week.

Nor do I mean to suggest we are, in any sense, engaged in acts of self-denial. The Lavenders don't even know the meaning of the word! Like most everyone else in our congregation, we have not only all we need, but most of what we want.

Nor have I set these figures forth as an example of what I think you should do. It's not for me to determine what you should do. That's between you and your God. My responsibility is to respond to the impulse God gives me, and to satisfy my own personal need to express gratitude to God for his goodness and mercy.

It is my job, however, and I shall fulfill it even though it is difficult for me, and may be painful for you, to remind you again and again and again and again of what Christ requires. He asks that "your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees." As a Christian you must not be satified to do less out of love for God, than the Old Testament Jew did out of obedience to the law of God.

I read somewhere about a sailor who prayed a little prayer on board ship one night, "Lord, make us ships with two hatches, please. One to take in your blessings. A second to give them out."

I like that prayer because it reminds me there is nothing wrong with taking in. As Christians we must never fall prey to the false premise that material things are evil. They're not. Nor should we conclude that pain, privation, and poverty are necessarily spiritual qualities. They're not.

There's nothing wrong with taking in. God meant for us to enjoy the so-called "good-life." And I do! I love beautiful paintings and I take justifiable pride in the few I am able to own. I get a great kick out of going to an excellent restaurant and sitting down to a fine meal. I enjoy living in a comfortable home. There is nothing wrong with these, provided they are not acquired and enjoyed at the expense of God's tithe!

I also like that little prayer because it reminds me, as important as taking in is, giving out is equally important As a matter of fact, my capacity to take in is governed by my willingness to give out. As long as I am full, there is no room for more. It is only as I give what I have, that I make additional room for God to pour out his blessings.

That little prayer also reminds me that, as Christians, we are ships engaged in heavenly commerce, loaded with gifts from God which we must deliver in his name. In other words, it reminds me that money is not an evil to be shunned, but an anvil to be used. An anvil upon which we can beat out the higher purposes and values for which our lives were made.

But enough of the first half of that acid test of your Christian faith: the amount of your giving. Of equal importance is --

The Spirit Of Your Giving.
I was greatly interested in a newspaper article about Alvin Dark, the former manager of the San Francisco Giants. The article quotes him as saying,
"When I was a boy I made $2.50 on a paper route. My mother insisted that I
give a tithe. It was very hard for me to give that quarter. So hard, in fact, my
hand would get stuck in my pocket."

The article goes on to say that after the 1954 World Series, when he was told his player's share would be $9,000, someone asked him what he was going to do with it. He said,
"The first thing I'm going to do is make out a check for $900 to my church.
It is not nearly as hard to make out this check, as it was to give that first quarter."

I think that's true. At least I've found it to be true in my own case. The hardest tithe is the first tithe. But once you step out in faith and take God at His promise to supply all your needs according to His riches in glory, you find the question changes from,
"How much shall I give" to "How little shall I keep?"

Someone put it this way,
"Don't give until it hurts. Keep on giving until it stops hurting."
I think that's what Paul had in mind when, in II Corinthians 9:7 he said, "God loves a cheerful, or hilarious giver."

You answer,
"Well, Dr. John, that leaves me out. I don't really enjoy giving what I give
now. I certainly won't be cheerful about giving ten percent!"

Well, let's look at that for a moment. What's the purpose of tithing? It's not to make money, but to make men. We tithe, not because God needs to receive it, but because we need to give it. We tithe because it's important that we learn what our material possessions are doing to us, as well asfor us. We tithe in order to get, and keep life in focus. To symbolically serve those ties which bind us to the earth, and strengthen those ties which bind us to God and to Glory.

Let me show you what I mean. Suppose you were to go to your family doctor tomorrow for your annual check-up and, to your surprise, though you feel fine, he says you urgently need surgery, there is a part of you that needs to be removed, if it isn't, you will die.

I doubt you would receive that news with any degree of delight. I question whether you would approach your surgical experience "cheerfully." But, having confidence in your doctor, having had assurance from some others who've had the same operation that, as a result of surgery, you will feel better, and be a stronger person, you undergo surgery. You may do it ruefully; thoughtfully and with just a tinge of apprehension, but you do it.

Your doctor knows that a positive mental attitude will have a great deal to do with the rapidity of your healing. He knows that if you approach this process in the right spirit, that which he can do for you surgically, will be easier and more successful. Therefore, he urges you to be a "cheerful " patient.

In precisely the same way, the Great Physician comes to you this morning and says you need a form of surgery. There is a part of your secular nature which needs to be cut out. If it isn't, you will die, spiritually. Jesus put it this way, "He who saves his life, will lose it!"

I doubt that you greet this bit of news this morning with enthusiastic delight. I didn't when I first got the message that, for my sake, God wanted me to tithe. The idea that, for my own soul's sake, I needed to be separated from a tenth of my possession in order to help sever the ties which bind me to the earth, and strengthen the ties which bind me to God, was not something I greeted with joy.

But, whether I liked it then, and whether you like it now, it's true! We need this surgery for our own soul's sake. We need to enter into the tithing procedure, not because we feel like jumping up and down with joy over the prospect of parting with a tenth of our income, but because we have confidence in the Great Physician! We have his assurance that, in the end, we will be better and stronger persons as a result. We also have the personal testimonies of friends, and fellow church members, who ungone this surgical process, who witness to the fact that they are pleased with the results!

But even as your doctor knows your attitude in approaching surgery will have a great deal to do with the rapidity of the healing process, so, too, the Great Physician knows the spirit in which you tithe will have a great deal to do with the efficacy of this act. So, he urges you to be a "cheerful giver." For your own soul's sake! So the initial hurt which comes from this severing process will be quickly healed, and the spiritual progress you make, and the downright joy you ultimately feel from tithing, will be increased.

The Rewards Of Tithing
This leads me to the rewards of tithing which can be summed up in the incredible discovery that, "Giving is True Having." John Bunyan, the famed author of Pilgrim's Progress, once dashed off a bit of doggerel which goes like this,
"A man there was, and they called him mad
The more he gave, the more he had."
But the man wasn't mad. He was wise. He had learned one of the secrets of the Christian life. By giving, we gain!

We gain blessings here and now, that otherwise would not be ours. Sometime ago thePhiladelphia Inquirer published a story which bears this out. Back in the early nineteen twenties the Asbury Methodist Church of Scranton, Pa. needed a new organ. A wealthy silk merchant in the congregation offered the church a $25,000 organ as a gift. Then came the depression. The silk industry collapsed. The once well-to-do merchant wsa broke. He went to work as janitor for the church to which he had given an organ. A visitor asked him how he felt about his job, and the many gifts he had made in more prosperous times. This was his answer.
"That which I kept, I lost. That which I gave, I have."

There are blessings and benefits here and now that cannot be yours apart from obedience to God in this matter of Chriatian stewardship. And, there are future blessings and rewards that come through tithing.

In that passage from the Sermon on the Mount which is our text, Jesus talks about laying up treasures in heaven where neither moth or rust doth corrupt. In Luke 16:9 he talks about making the proper use of money so you can be received into "everlasting habitation."

If these words mean anything, they mean money can be immortal. It actually has the power to exchange values which can be destroyed, for those which cannot be destroyed. Money can actually take that which is temporal, and make it eternal. It can give material things a spiritual quality which never dies.

So, contrary to what you have often heard, "You can take it with you!" You can buy, with money, treasures that cannot be lost. You can lay up in heaven, treasure which are eternal and immortal. You can take it with you -- or more properly stated -- you can send it on ahead.

A woman had a dream in which she visited heaven. She was a wealthy woman and was interested in seeing the mansions. Saint Peter led her off into one of the residential districts. As they walked down a street in the celestial city they came to a rather modest bungalow. She said lightly, "Whose bungalow is this?" "Why, madam," Saint Peter replied, "it is yours!"

Somewhat disappointed, she pointed to the large estate across the street. In the center of it stood a beautiful mansion. "Whose is that?" she asked. Saint Peter replied, "That belongs to Harry Smith." "Strange," she said, "Harry Smith was my chauffeur. Are they any relation?" "Yes, ma'am," Saint Peter answered, "they are one and the same person. You see, madam," he
continued, "in building the mansions here in heaven, we only have such materials to use as have been sent to us. Such materials as are given to God. This mansion represents what Harry Smithgave. The bungalow, what you gave."

It was just a dream. Or was it?