Wounding Waters, Part 1: Love of Money 2:3

Wounding Waters, Part 1: Love of Money 2:3

September 28, 2013

Now for our second example: there was a time in our lives when we went from being fairly well off, in the historic district of Annapolis, Maryland, living in a nice, historic, 3-story building to poor - quite literally overnight. (Snaps her fingers) Just like that! We ended up in a tar-paper shack on the side of a mountain, in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. Previously, we'd attended an affluent Washington D.C. church, and we'd been drawn into the social circle of the pastor and the pastor's wife. They were fond of us, and they were very good people and very, very good to us. He was educated at Oxford. They were very Spirit-filled, special, good people.

When we went from that social status or that income bracket to being poor, and we moved away to a different area - when we walked into church with our four children, we drew some amazing stares. The coldness, the rejection, and the suspicion of people toward us was amazing! I was totally floored!

I look back on that period now, and doing without the niceties of life - like hot water and having to shop at thrift stores and so on - was no big deal. However, the social stigma attached to that change and to the way that people treated you, as well as the opportunities to minister that they closed the door on, and the ways that they judged you was a whole different matter!

It was as if, all of a sudden, you had gone from someone who could do something in the church; make a contribution and be helpful... to someone who is utterly worthless. After all, you couldn't be a success. Because if you were a success, then you would be dressed successfully. If you are not a success, then we shouldn't hand over the ministry-type jobs to you, because you obviously don't measure up. This is universal. We can deny it. We can say that it doesn't exist; but we know that it does. And it's very painful! It's so terribly painful! Not only are we discriminated against in those situations, but our children are discriminated against. We just aren't worthy of the opportunities that the wealthier class and the Church get.

This makes me think of Proverbs 13:7

One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing. Another pretends to be poor that has great wealth.'

I have to tell you that when we made this move, our spiritual life exploded in depth: in comprehension, in unity with the Lord, in His priorities, in our love for Him, in teaching our children. Overnight our lives went from being superficially engaged in all the trappings of a well-heeled, middle-class family, to focusing almost exclusively on the Lord. On His integrity and virtue, on loving Him, on worshiping Him, on learning about Him. Our lives changed overnight!

This particular Scripture reminds me so much of our life at that time! We had to borrow a chainsaw in order to have enough wood to stay warm throughout the winter. That's the kind of situation we were in. When we were in Annapolis, we pretended to be rich. We had all of these things that kept us so busy - getting the house properly manicured, getting it properly decorated, getting the 'right' clothing and the 'correct' accessories for this clothing, making certain that we had all of the right trappings for living. We were just going around on a merry-go-round.

This reminds me of a very specific magazine cover done by Keith Greene. It's very hard to forget. It was of a woman standing in a classy, yellow kitchen, and she looked like a swirl of water that was getting flushed down the toilet drain. She was spinning and swirling around like she was being swallowed up and flushed down this drain. That is how we felt when we pretended to be rich!

Then we come to the second portion of this saying: "Another has nothing and pretends to be poor; yet has great wealth."

How beautiful our life was at that time! How rich in the Lord it was. I'm convinced that this fear of rejection, and of not being given opportunities in Ministry or in the Church haunts a lot of Christians, and even pastors. They really feel obligated to keep up with what they look like. The kinds of things that they have, the kind of house that they have, what types of cars they drive. They feel that an important aspect of being a shepherd - and being a leader - is to present a prosperous image. This thought brings us to our next example.

I don't think that the Lord has anything against people who are wealthy and well-groomed. In fact, these are the people that He has chosen to manage the funding of missions and other endeavors for the Church, for the spread of the gospel. They are people with great integrity that He loves very much; that He can trust to do His will. Many of the wealthy are, and that's a beautiful thing! We're not going to criticize wealth or being well-groomed. However, what I know the Lord doesn't like is to judge people by these standards of the world. That's what we're talking about here - judging people's worth based upon their economic status. He hates that!

What about pastors that have an eye toward expansion of their churches, big prosperous ministries and luxurious homes? Let's take a look at that for a moment. I've heard pastors talk about other pastors who were very wealthy and had a lot of money and incredibly beautiful, extraordinary mansions. I've heard them hold these people up as examples of how they want to be and how they want their Christian Body - their church - to be. I think that this is terrible! What are we talking about here? We're talking about all of the trappings of the world; we're not talking about anointing, Church holiness, or personal holiness. We're not talking about these examples. We're talking about examples of money. That has to do with the world, and that can get us into a lot of trouble!

Let's say, for instance, that there's a pastor of a small church. And he is very conscious about how he looks, how he dresses and his appearance at church. At the same time, there is a single mother there who doesn't have a car. The pastor has saved money; he has a job on the side. He's saved money, so that he can go spend $300, $400, or $500 on clothing one weekend, because the things that he has are getting a little old. And a woman comes to the church, who is a single mother and a regular church-goer, whose husband has deserted her - and she has no car. No way to take the kids to the doctor, no way to go shopping, no way to take them on outings. She's in a really rough position, not having a car! She finds a car for sale, for a $500 down payment - that's out of the question for her. She doesn't have that kind of money. So, she goes to the pastor.

Now, the pastor is going to be confronted with a choice: Do I keep up with how I'm supposed to look - this successful, prosperous image? Or do I give this money to her, and go on wearing frayed shirt collars and the same old suits to church? What am I going to do in that situation?

Folks, we should never have to make that kind of a decision! That should be a non-existent threat in our lives as Christians. That should be totally irrelevant to us - having to influence other people with our appearance, to the point where we can't be charitable toward other people, because we need that money to look good.

Here is another example of a single mother at a conference. She's wanted to go to this conference for months, because she heard about this wonderful teacher who is coming. She finds a babysitter among her friends for her children; she has a friend who pays for her ticket and they go together to this conference.

She absolutely adores the teacher, and she would love to have some of the tapes and books that this teacher has written! During the intermission, she goes out into the lobby and she looks at all of the things that are being offered for sale, and everything is just so expensive. It seems like the price of each next item is more expensive than the last! This woman is thinking about cough syrup for her children. She can't go to Walgreen's and buy cough syrup, and have one of these teachings on CD... She walks away frustrated, hurt, and disappointed.

Perhaps she writes to the teacher/evangelist, and asks if they would donate some materials to her. She gets a polite letter back that says, "I'm sorry but we only do that for people who are in the mission field, overseas." The really difficult thing is that the teacher here likes clothing, loves to go shopping, and talks about that pretty liberally, along with her teachings. This is sad! This is just tragic! That a woman should go without teachings like that. Where are our priorities, where we have such a need to appear in different clothes every time we go out to teach, that we have to spend large amounts of money on clothing? What about those women who come to the conference who can't leave with the materials they need to extricate themselves from a life of despair and poverty and depression? She doesn't have a computer, so she can't go on-line to purchase some of these teachings. She's lucky if she has a CD player that works. This is another way that this whole culture of prosperity affects the little people and their children; and it can continue on for generations.

I want to quote First John 2:15

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in that. For everything in the world -- the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life -- comes not from the Father, but from the world. And the world, and its desires, pass away. But whoever does the will of God lives forever.

I'm going to talk about someone like that in just a few moments, so don't get discouraged by negative examples. I'm just trying to draw attention to the ways that we really have cheated ourselves out of grace, and cheated others out of grace, by putting such a high priority on these superficial things.

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