Positive Mammon 2

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, (Luke 4:18)

Allow me to focus this topic today on us ministers

And I do this because we know that judgment starts in God’s household.

And I must address us separately because for many of us we do not have the resources to pour into those enterprises, simply because we depend on others to supply our needs.

I do not earn money from ministering. But I know I am not speaking about the majority.

Some of us have no disposable income to do anything apart from the ministry God has called us to.

For example, it would be disastrous for me to take moneys God has availed for me to make books or audio Bibles to feed the hungry just as it would be for someone to take money God has released for a mission to be taken to an orphanage. On the same vein it would be as wicked to take money meant to feed the vulnerable for a mission.

There are churches that have abused designated giving and attracted judgment, and continue doing so.

But this does not absolve us from using mammon for kingdom purposes.

That is what I want us to look at.

A minister is a servant of another. A minister is a steward of someone else’s resources.

It is only that the Lord and Owner of those resources is not physically visible. Nor does He enforce our compliance towards His orders.

Many interpret that as not caring whether His orders are followed or not.

But nothing can be farther than the truth.

God holds us accountable for the last cent He has entrusted to us just as He does for every idle word we speak and every idle minute we waste.

It means God in a more demanding boss than the rest, only that He does not always hold the whip to enforce our obedience.

It is therefore instructive that we learn the basics of what is required of us by way of giving us a focus.

Who does God focus on?

This will guide us as we use mammon positively.

Matthew 25 talks about sheep and goats. This means that this can guide us on our use of mammon.

Needs.

And we see that even in the Old Testament.

Among the signs Jesus gave for John the Baptist to know that He was the Christ was that the poor have the Gospel preached to them.

Two things I want us to look at.

The first is, what is the focus of our ministry? Where is our focus for our ministry.

We would do well to imitate our Lord in that.

He focused on the downs and outs. He focused on the rejects. He focused on the hopeless. He focused on the sick and seeking. He focused on the ones nobody else dared associate with.

Have you ever wondered why Judas had to kiss Jesus for Him to be known to the authorities yet He was such a public figure?

They had probably never seen Him. And that simply because His ministry never took Him anywhere close to them.

Herod longed to see Him yet Jesus never honoured that desire.

That is the reason they needed for Him to be identified.

Where does our ministry take us?

And I am not questioning the executive and golf course ministries.

But according to Jesus, the focus of ministry is the hurting, the ones who are openly expressing their need for someone to rescue them.

The other aspect is our assessment of the giving toward us and the ministry we have been called to.

Again, look at Jesus to get your focus. Look at Him at that offertory.

The one who had given close to nothing in monetary terms is gauged to have given more that all the others who had offered huge amounts.

And we would be wise to use His standard to gauge the giving we enjoy from God’s people.

Most people who give sacrificially have very little to live on, just like that widow with her two mites.

They are in effect giving everything they have.

I remember once a young man gave me twenty bob (equivalent to a quarter during those times).

And he really pressed me to take it because he felt that rejecting it meant that I was rejecting his appreciation for my ministry.

To imagine he had walked the equivalent of two to three times that amount in fare, of course because he couldn’t have afforded it, is unimaginable for most.

That he could have saved himself half of his walk by using that amount for fare should guide our appreciation for that mite since he had literally offered his blood in that gift.

And I have had several other similar incidences in the course of the ministry God has entrusted me with.

Thinking that the thousand-dollar offering is worth more than that quarter is tantamount to walking roughshod on that young man’s blood.

Like the Macedonians in 1 Corinthians 8, he had first offered himself before offering the gift.

The gift was therefore an extension of his sacrifice.

And it is the same way when we give.

We might not feel anything when in plenty we offer a huge gift. But it is quite painful when we have to offer our last coin because it then means we are left with nothing.

I hope we will fill the gaps with more relevant revelation.