Our World and Our Wealth — John D. Martin

The story is told of a shipwrecked sailor who landed on a South Sea island, one of many stories of that sort. And he was seized by the natives and they hoisted this man to their shoulders and carried him to the village and put him on a rude throne and said he was going to be king for a year.

And then he discovered that they did that every year. That they chose a man, put him on a throne, and he was king for a year. But after he had been king for a little while, he began to wonder what happened to the other kings after the year was up.

Because there didn't seem to be any of them left on the island. And then he discovered that after the year was up, they took the king and they put him on a desert island and there he was left to starve to death.

So this man was wise and he said, well, I'm going to be king for a year. So he hired people to go out to that desert and fertilize it and build irrigation systems and build buildings and put trees there.

And for the whole year they went there and they refurbished that, or they furnished that island with every imaginable thing that a person could need. And so at the end of the year, when he was banished to the island, he didn't starve to death like the others did.

Our Temporary Stewardship and Eternal Treasure

Now, we are all kings for a little while on this earth. And our responsibility is to decide what we're going to do with the things God has given us. We can keep them here and have nothing on the other side, or we can send them on ahead as we said this morning, and we will enjoy them through all eternity.

I'm not sure what all that means, but that's what the scripture has clearly said to us. Jesus said, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. And then he told us how to do it. He said, sell that you have and give alms, provide for yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heaven that faileth not.

The Reality of Global Poverty and Preventable Death

Now we live in a world where we have tremendous opportunity to do this with extravagance because we live in a very, very needy world. There's no end to the needs to which we can give, literally. And we're going to talk about that tonight.

I have four points to my message tonight. The reality of the world we live in, the requirement, the resources, and the response. So first of all, let's talk about the reality. Seven billion people live in this world.

Are you aware that one billion of the seven lives on a dollar a day? Another two billion of the seven live on less than two dollars a day. In other words, nearly half of the world that we live in struggles to find enough food and water just to survive another day.

Almost half of the population of the world. That's an incredible fact. Some more facts. 29 ,000 children die every day from starvation and preventable disease. That's brought on by contaminated water, infections, malaria, et cetera.

29 ,000 children. In fact, to help you think a little bit about that reality, while I'm giving this message tonight, 1 ,000 children in the world will die. And it's perfectly preventable. All they needed was food.

All they needed was clean water. All they needed was proper medical attention for the curable diseases they had. But while I'm speaking tonight, 1 ,000 children in the world will die of causes that could have been prevented.

To give you a little bit of an idea how many people 29 ,000 people are, the city of Chambersburg is near us. It's 20 ,000 people. So what we're saying is that all the people in Chambersburg, in fact, even in this larger area of Chambersburg, 29 ,000 people would be dead by this time tomorrow.

That's how many people we're talking about. Every year there's a young people's ministry called Teen Mania that puts on an event to challenge young people. And one year they decided to do a little demonstration to make the reality of the world we live in just a little more real to people.

So what they did in every session that they had, they had this in various parts of the country, is they brought a goldfish bowl up and the person took the goldfish out of the bowl and laid him on the podium and then stepped back and let the audience watch that goldfish flop and flounder and die.

And in every case before that happened, somebody couldn't stand it, ran up from the audience, grabbed the goldfish and put it back into the bowl. The problem is you're not there when those 29 ,000 children die.

They die in obscurity. They're often in places that the news media doesn't even reach and nobody sees them die. Somebody has said a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. But tonight I want you to leave this place with a sense of responsibility for those many, many people that have just become a statistic.

The Golden Rule and the Cost of Indifference

The golden rule, suppose you were starving and you knew that some rich teenager could have saved your life if she hadn't needed that sixth pair of shoes. What would you think if you heard that she was a Christian and you knew what Christianity taught and you died and you knew that this person had the means to save your life and was not caring?

What would you think? 85, 850 ,000 people go, or children, go to bed hungry every night. How much would it take to prevent this mind-boggling tragedy in our world? Well, there are some statistics that people have figured.

You can go on the internet and get these for yourself. Thirteen billion dollars a year would provide the basic nutrition for every starving person in the world. Thirteen billion dollars a year, you say that's a lot of money.

Are you aware that American Christians spend 21 billion dollars a year on soft drinks? If every Christian gave the money they spent on soft drinks, it would feed every starving person in our world. You want to know how much they spend on Christmas gifts?

A hundred billion. A hundred billion dollars would literally feed, educate, cure almost every problem in our needy world. That's what we spend on Christmas gifts. Three billion dollars a year would save one half million people from blindness that occurs simply because of a lack of vitamin A.

American Christians spend five billion dollars on bottled water. But the most heart-wrenching part of what's going on in our world is the injustice that happens to people that have no choice. Two hundred forty-six billion children in our world are in the bonds of child labor.

And let me read you an actual account. My sister is ten years old. Every morning at seven o 'clock, she goes to the bonded labor man. And every night at nine, that's fourteen hours later, she comes home.

He treats her badly. He hits her if he thinks she's working slowly or if she's talking to the other children. He yells at her. He comes looking for her if she's sick and cannot go to work. This is a terrible thing for her.

I don't care about school or playing. I don't care about any of that. All I want is to bring my sister home from the bonded labor man. For six hundred rubies, I can bring her home. That is our only chance to get her back, but we do not have six hundred rubies and we will never have six hundred rubies.

And six hundred rubies is fourteen dollars. All over the third country world, people get into trouble. There's a funeral they cannot pay for or there's an illness they cannot pay for or they just simply don't have the money to put food on the table.

And so these children are sold to these bonded labor men. And they may earn ten cents a day. And the interest gets way ahead of the amount they owe and they will work for years to pay off ten, fifteen, twenty dollars that was borrowed.

To me that is heart-wrenching. In fact, so heart-wrenching I must do something about this. I've been talking about this with my family. I can't handle the fact that they're children. What were you doing when you were seven years old?

What were you doing when you were ten years old? Here are children. I just can't imagine. And I want you to think about this. What I want to do tonight is lay a burden on your heart. We live in a country that is totally unrealistic.

It's the richest country that the world ever had. And I see teenagers in my own community buying designer clothes, buying $160 sneakers, buying soft drinks, buying fancy cars, buying fancy clothes, buying twenty shoes, buying, well you know what goes on in our plain communities.

Biblical Requirements for Helping the Poor

What is the requirement? What does God think about all of this? God has repeatedly admonished us and warned us about our responsibility. It's a little bit like the whole subject of economics and this one is related.

There are dozens of scriptures, in fact I want to turn you to a bunch of them tonight. I want you to see them for yourself. Turn to Proverbs 24, verses 11 and 12. I would like tonight to put such a burden on your heart that it would forever cure you of your selfish materialism if you're involved in it.

I hope there are people here tonight that have already dealt with it. But if you haven't, my purpose tonight is to make you aware of the fact that your indulgence is somebody else's suffering. It's not something you can do with impunity.

It costs something for somebody else for you to be selfish with the resources you have that they don't. Proverbs 24, verses 11 and 12 reads this way. If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and I just read you some accounts, and those that are ready to be slain, if thou sayest, behold, we knew it not.

Now that may have been true years ago without all the electronic media we have today. But there is nobody today that can say, we don't know this is happening. It's on your cell phone. It's on your computer.

It's, I mean, it's just there. If you want to know it, you can know it. And it says, don't you say to the Lord, we didn't know it. Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul, doth he not know it?

He shall not, and shall he not render to every man according to his works? So don't say, I didn't know it. It was, they were statistics. I didn't actually see it happening. I was, don't say that. There's not a single person sitting here tonight, especially after this message, that can leave this place and say, I don't know it.

I'm going to buy my 20th pair of shoes. Or I'm going to buy my dream car. Or I'm going to build my dream house. Or I'm going to continue some other indulgence. When you leave this place tonight, you will not be able to say, I did not know it.

Would you turn to Proverbs 28, verse 27. He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack. Now God said that I didn't. That's a promise. He that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse. Now I don't know what that means, but I don't want to find it out.

He that gives shall have no lack. He that hideth his eyes shall be cursed. Would you turn to Proverbs 21, 13. And these are Old Testament scriptures. This one says, whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.

Jeremiah 22, Jeremiah 22, verses 16 and 17. He that judgeth the cause of the poor and the needy, then it was well with him. Was not this to know me, saith the Lord. You see what he's saying there? To judge the cause of the poor and needy is what it means to know God.

But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence to do it. All right, let's turn to Ezekiel 16. These are strong scriptures, and I was very convicted.

My life needs some changes in this area as well, and I intend to make them. Ezekiel 16, 49. But this, behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Now, if you were to ask most people what was the iniquity of Sodom, they would say homosexuality, and it was.

But that's not even mentioned here. Here was the iniquity of Sodom. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

Now, apparently, God puts sexual immorality sort of in the same category that he puts this problem. That makes it pretty serious to me. All right, apparently, ignoring the poor is somewhere in the same category as sexual sin in God's eyes.

God takes our attitude toward the poor, as you can see from these scriptures, very seriously. He has a special eye on the poor, not only for their need, but for your response to their need. He's watching.

You see, God could deal with all these inequities. He could save the whole world without the missionaries. God could do all of that. But he leaves these situations for his children to accept responsibility and do what needs to be done.

And he takes it very seriously, and he's watching. He's watching my attitude toward the poor, just as he's watching my attitude toward the lost. And he takes it very seriously. I want you to turn to Matthew 25, the classic scripture now in the New Testament, and we'll just simply read it.

It doesn't really need a lot of comment. I'm just going to read the entire passage, verses 31 through 46. When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.

And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was in hunger, and you gave me meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink.

I was a stranger, and you took me in. Naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, when saw we in hunger and fed thee, or thirsty and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in, or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall he say also to them on the left hand, Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was in hunger, and you gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink.

I was a stranger, and you took me not in. Naked, and you clothed me not. Sick and in prison, and you visited me not. Then shall they also answer him saying, Lord, when saw thee we unhungered, or a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these, ye did it not unto me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.

Repentance Demonstrated Through Generosity

Well, most people are going to say, well, I thought the judgment in the end was going to be whether a person surrendered in faith and obedience to Christ. That is true. But it's interesting that when the soldiers came to John the Baptist, or the people came to John the Baptist, and he preached that scorching sermon to them, and then they said, well, what shall we do?

He said, if you have two coats, give one away. If you have more food than what you need, give the extra away. What strange advice. You would have thought he'd have said, well, you need to repent. He was saying you need to repent, but he said, that's fruit for repentance.

If you were asked most people, what is fruit for repentance? They'd give you an altogether different picture. John says, fruit of repentance is what you do with your stuff. Zacchaeus came to Christ, and he said, behold, my goods I give to the poor, and I'm going to give back double, or however much to the people that I wronged.

And he said all of that. And you know what Jesus said to him? Today is salvation, come to this house. Now if salvation, if genuine repentance is giving away your extra stuff, and if salvation is proved by what you do with your extra stuff, I ask myself, how much salvation are we experiencing?

And Jesus makes it very clear here that that's what the judgment's going to be based on. The evidence that you have surrendered your life in faith and obedience to Christ will manifest itself specifically in this manner.

Or according to John the Baptist, according to the example of Zacchaeus, and according to what Jesus says here, there has not been a genuine repentance. There has not been genuine faith in Christ. There has not been a surrender to his lordship.

There has not been an obedience to his commands, because he makes it very clear what we're supposed to do. And the thing that troubles me is the church for years has failed to really emphasize this fact of the gospel.

There's a great blind spot in American Christianity. And it's amazing sometimes what kind of blind spots Christians can have. Are you aware in this country, 150 years ago, Christians defended slavery.

And we look now and we say, how in the world could they possibly have defended slavery? But they did. You can be that blind. And tonight, I hope, including myself, we can get rid of the blinders. There are 143 million orphans in the world.

Because of all the wars and all the horrible things that happen in the world, there are 143 orphans. There's an anti-Christian website that plays the song, Jesus Loves Me, This I Know. And while they're playing, this is an anti-Christian website, while they're playing Jesus Loves Me, This I Know, they pass pictures of the emaciated, starving children in front of you while you're watching that website.

And the whole time it's playing, Jesus Loves Me, This I Know. And then at the end, they have a cross with the circle, with the line through it that means no. And then they say this, He is your God. These are his rules.

And you all go to hell. Now, granted, that's a pretty awful message. And they don't intend for it to do any good. But I'm afraid they understand the gospel better sometimes than we do. The widow gave all that she had.

She gave her living. That literally means she had nothing for the next day. And Jesus said, she gave more than all the rest put together. That's Jesus' standard. Not how much you gave, but how much you have left.

You know, I hear people say, well, this man's really rich, but he really gives. Well, according to that parable, I don't think God measures how much you give. He measures what it costs you to give. So that's the requirement.

It's very clear from the Scriptures that God expects us to know what's going on in our world and to respond to those needs to the extent of our ability. And he will hold us accountable. Let's talk about the resources for a few moments.

The Resources God Entrusts to His People

The United States is the richest nation in the world. It has one half of the world's wealth and 5 of the world's population. Did you hear me? It has one half of the world's wealth and 5 of the world's population.

There are 160 million adults in the United States who claim to be Christians. Now, listen to this. If each person who claims to be a Christian would give $15 a month, it would literally wipe out starvation in the world.

Now, I understand that a lot of those situations where people are starving are political situations. You can't even get the stuff to them. I understand that. We're only talking in hypothetical figures here.

$15 a month from every professing Christian in the United States would basically solve the problem of world hunger. That's all it would take. It wouldn't take a lot, just that much. Not only would it do that, it would also provide safe drinking water for all children, and it would educate every child who's not in school.

Let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. There's only one reason why God has given us more than what we need. Did you know that? There's only one reason why God has given anybody more than they need.

And it tells it here in this passage. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. It says, verse 13,. For I mean not that other men be eased and ye burdened, but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, and their abundance may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality.

If you have more than enough to meet your needs, there's only one reason why you've been given more than enough. So you can help those who do not have more than enough. That's the only reason. It's not yours to do with what you want to.

It's not the purpose at all. In fact, are you aware of the fact that the great practical theme, I said practical theme, of the scriptures is equity? The prophets scored Israel time after time for inequity, which is what the word iniquity means.

The word iniquity is the word inequity. It means for you to respond with your resources in a way that is not equitable. You lavish them on yourselves and there are other people in the world who are dying to support that extravagance.

That's inequity, iniquity, and God hates it. He says here that the reason some people have more than enough is so they can give to those who don't have enough, so things can be equaled out. That's the only purpose that you have more than what you need.

I was telling a friend of mine about a brother in our community who farms organically. He feeds his cattle very little grain. He says it's too expensive. He grazes his cattle. He has his whole farm basically in alfalfa.

He grows no corn. He makes a decent living. He said, my cows don't get sick. I don't have any mastitis. I don't have any twisted stomachs. My cows stay in the herd for 12 years instead of two or three like the people who push them with energy.

He was telling me what for a wonderful experience he has farming. He has healthy cows. He makes a living. Everything's fine. I was telling a friend of mine about that. And he said, now, this was a good plain Mennonite.

He said, yeah, he said, you can make a living doing that, but you can't get ahead. Well, I said, what do you mean by getting ahead? Well, he said, you'll never come up with the money to buy the next farm.

See, that's our mentality, to get ahead. And my question is, to get ahead of whom? God? He said, if you have extra money, it's not yours to do with as you please. It's here because there are many people in the world who need that excess, and God, for some reason, has given it to American people and American Christians.

And what he's expecting to happen is for this to flow from America to other parts of the world so there can at least be some semblance of equality worldwide. This is an unbelievable opportunity, an unbelievable opportunity.

Cheerful Giving and God’s Provision

Let's look at the response. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians. We're right here in Corinthians. Let's look at chapter nine. I like this verse. Verse six of chapter nine. But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly.

And he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Now, this is in the context of giving. Read eight and nine, that's the context. The person who gives sparingly will reap sparingly, and the person who gives bountifully will reap bountifully.

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. Do you know what the Greek word for cheerful there is? Hilaros, the word from which we get hilarious.

God loves a hilarious giver. I mean, when he gives, he's in hilarity. It is the most uplifting thing he can think of to do. That's the kind of giver God loves. Let's continue. And God is able to make all grace.

This verse is often quoted out of context. This is in the context. If you're not living, as I was describing, this verse does not apply to you. God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work.

That's to the hilarious giver. I think if I asked for a raise of hand, every person here would say they want that kind of blessing. I do. God has clearly told us how you can have it. And if you turn to Philippians, it says, let's turn to it.

Philippians chapter four, I should be able to quote it right off. I'm getting older and absent-minded and I can't always quote. Yes, verse 19, my God shall supply all your needs. And again, this is in the context of giving.

Paul's commending the people in Asia. I'm sorry, in Northern Greece, Thessalonica, I think. Philippi, I'm sorry. He's commending the people in Philippi for sending an offering to him. And I want to read what he says here.

Verse 17, before we get to verse 19. Not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. Paul says, the gift you sent to me, I'm happy you sent it. Not because you sent it to me, but I am so happy with what's going to happen to you as a result.

You have set to your account abounding gift and reward. And then he goes down in verse 19 and he says, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus because of their response.

Now, if God gives us according to his riches, that's a little bit different from him giving out of his riches. Let me explain the difference. If I were a millionaire and you had a $50 ,000 hospital bill and I paid 40 ,000 of it, you would say that was a pretty good gift.

But that'd give you no clue how wealthy I really am. But if I paid you the whole $50 ,000 bill and gave you $25 ,000 on top of it just as a gift, that would give you some clue how wealthy I am. And God gives us, to the cheerful giver, to the hilarious giver, God gives according to his riches, not out of his riches, commensurate with his wealth.

That's how he gives. This is a tremendous principle. I want all of you to leave tonight to be hilarious givers. That's what I want to have happen. All right? All right. Let's turn to Matthew chapter six.

I mean, the gospel is just full of this. And I don't understand. I don't understand why these themes are not preached. They are practical themes. Everybody wrings their hands in plain circles and says we're drowning in our materialism.

Listen, we're in a war against the world and the world is basically a materialistic world. It values only the things you can see and feel and touch and experiment with. And we're in a war against that.

And the best way to win this war is extravagant giving to deal with this whole problem in our lives. Matthew chapter six, verses one to four. Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them.

Otherwise, now alms is giving. I think the word alms here to the Jewish mind meant any kind of righteous deeds, but we think of it specifically in terms of giving. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory.

Men, verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. That thine alms may be in secret, and this is the part that excites me, that the Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

John Wesley and Sacrificial Stewardship

Now, in reaction to the Roman Catholics that had their means of grace, and I mentioned those, I think, in my other message, we have gone to the other extreme and have said there are no means of grace.

There are means of grace. Here he gives one of them. When we give alms, God rewards us openly, not necessarily with alms. Let me give you an example of a man who God rewarded openly in a tremendous way.

And you probably did not know what was behind the scenes. Let me tell you what was behind the scenes. His name was John Wesley. Now, listen to this. John Wesley chose to live on what today would be a salary of $20 ,000 a year, and he never changed that through his entire life.

That's what John Wesley lived on, $20 ,000 a year. Now, John Wesley wrote many books and was involved in many enterprises, and he earned approximately $160 ,000 a year. He never took out of that more than $20 ,000.

He gave $140 ,000 of that. And if you visit the Wesley Museum in London and you go down to the basement of that church where he preached, and there's a museum of John Wesley's life, and I stood there convicted.

Here was a man who was known widely. He was famous. He could have had whatever he wanted. There would have been Christian people would have been glad to give him pretty much whatever honor, whatever position he wanted.

But here was a man who cared about the poor in London. And there was exhibit after exhibit of the lengths that he would go to to just help one prisoner who was in trouble, or one poor person who was in trouble.

John Wesley was an extravagant giver. In fact, at one point in his life, tea became expensive and he quit drinking tea, so he would have that much more to give to the Lord. Those are the kinds of decisions he made.

And like I said, if you go down there and look at his museum, he was involved with jails and prisoners. He was involved with the poor houses. He was involved with getting people to think about freeing the slaves in England.

Everybody who was in need captured this man's heart. And here's an actual account. Wesley had just finished buying some pictures for his room when one of the chambermaids came to his door. It was a winter day and he noticed that she had only a thin linen gown to wear for protection against the cold.

He reached into his pocket to give her some money for a coat and found that he had little left. It struck him that the Lord was not pleased with how he had spent his money. He asked himself, will thy master say well done, thou good and faithful servant?

Thou hast adorned thy walls with the money that might have screened this poor creature from the cold. Oh, justice, oh, mercy, are not these pictures the blood of this poor woman? And then there's a reason why at his death somebody made this comment about Wesley.

When Wesley left this world, he left a battered hat, a worn coat, a tattered Bible, and the Methodist church. And that was not just a happenstance. That whole statement is one statement. That's why God blessed him.

The Parable of the Unjust Steward and True Riches

I want you to turn to a very interesting scripture that's very often misunderstood. Luke chapter 16. And I'm gonna take the time to exposit this a little bit. Chapter 16, Jesus says to his disciples, beginning in verse one, there was a certain rich man which had a steward and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

And he called him and said unto him, how is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest no longer be steward. Then the steward said within himself, what shall I do?

My Lord's taken from me the stewardship. I'm too lazy to dig. I'm paraphrasing a little bit here. And to beg I am ashamed. I'm resolved what to do. That when I'm put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.

So he called unto every one of his Lord's debtors. He called them unto him and said unto the first, how much dost thou owe my Lord? And he said, a hundred measures of oil. And he said, take your bill quickly and write 50.