The Great Exchange
Romans 1:21-32
This morning we start a new message series called Hoarding Heavenly Treasures. The elders and I agreed that as a church we were overdue for series on stewardship and giving. It has been two years since I have preached on the topic. Let me start by demonstrating the need for preaching on this subject.
This
first chart demonstrates that the more money a person earns, the less likely he
is to tithe his income. Notice especially the amount of pre-tax income that is
left after tithing. Those in a higher income bracket have 3-5 times as much
income to live on as those in the lower bracket, yet those in the lower income
bracket have a rate of tithing that is eight times greater. This does not make
any sense.
The next statistic shows the amount of charitable giving by Protestants in the last century. In 1921 Protestants gave only 2.9% of their income. By 1933 the average giving was increased to 3.3%. This may seem like a modest increase, but in 1933 our country was at the height of the Great Depression. During the time of greatest poverty American Protestants gave the most money. Shockingly, in 2000 the percent of income given is down to a mere 2.6%.
The abysmal rate of giving wouldn’t be so bad, but it seems that evangelicals are not even honest about their giving. The percentage of evangelicals who claim to tithe is 32%. That’s really not too bad—almost one-third of evangelicals. But when you press these same people for details about their giving it turns out that only 13% actually do tithe their income. To top it all off, the people of Wisconsin are among the worst charitable givers in the entire country. Wisconsin is 43rd out of 50 states in giving.
Who
is at fault in this dilemma? Should I wave my finger at you, raise my voice to a
piercing level and shame you into giving more money? No, that would just be
mean. Should I put pictures of poor starving children on the overhead until your
guilt pushes you to give more? No, that would just be manipulative. Should I
tell you that if you put enough money in the offering plate that Jay-sus will
give you a new car. And if you put more money in the offering plate that Jay-sus
will you you a new house. Let me tell you a new truth, bruthas & sistas—more
zros on your tithe check means more zeros on your paycheck. No, that would be
heresy! My purpose in preaching this series is not to shame anyone into giving
or to heap guilt on them until they empty out their pockets. If blame is to be
spread around, perhaps I should take the most blame. 85% of pastors do not own
even one book on stewardship, money or giving. I own a half dozen or so such
books, but that does not necessarily mean that I have been faithful in teaching
on the topic.
All of that being said, if you look down the list of message titles for this series, you will see that I will not even be directly addressing the topic of giving until the 5th message. I purposefully did this because there is one absolutely necessary thing which must always precede giving, and that is grace. The more you understand the gift of grace given to us through Jesus Christ, the more your heart will be released to give back to God. Sometimes a poor giver is referred to as “tightfisted”. Even though your fist holds onto the money, such a person would be more accurately called “tight-hearted”. A lack of grace leaves one with a closed heart and giving is either impossible or is done begrudgingly. But a grace-filled heart will also be a giving heart. My aim in this message series is to get the grace of Christ flowing in our lives. If we do that, giving will eventually come. But if you start out my telling people to give, you may miss out on grace.
Our text for this morning is Romans 1
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
If grace is what every man, woman and child desperately needs, this passage is an example of the ultimate rejection of that grace. If you are looking for a light-hearted Bible passage to read, I would not recommend that you choose this one. It does not start out with the subject of grace, but of the consequences of rejecting grace. 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Who among us likes to hear about the wrath of God? Have you ever heard of a ten-week sermon series called, “The Many Blessings of the Wrath of God”? Such a thing is not very popular because people only want to hear about the love of God. When I talk with non-Christians about Jesus I find that they are not familiar with the hard teachings of Jesus. Therefore, this kind of watered-down, user-friendly Jesus is extremely popular. Even movie stars and famous people have been seen wearing this t-shirt. Have you seen this one? “Jesus is my homeboy”. Jesus is no gangsta, ghetto, homey who hangs with his bro’s in the hood. If this is your conception of Jesus then you need to read this chapter in Romans again. The wrath of God is being revealed…against those who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
We have a clear choice to either receive wrath of grace from God. Amazingly, most people choose wrath instead of grace. This has been called the great exchange and involves turning in something of infinite worth and value to get something that is worthless and deadly. Look at the first great exchange. The glory of the immortal God is exchanged for images made to look like mortal man. If you come to God on his terms—by receiving Christ through faith—then you also get the glory of the immortal God. I hope you can see there is an entire sermon contained in that phrase—the glory of the immortal God. God’s glory is the totality of his being—all of the praise and honor that are his due. When Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, he said to his Father, “Glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” Even in his perfection, Jesus did not possess the full complement of God’s glory.
But this perfect glory is exchanged for images made to look like mortal man. Today we don’t carve images out of wood and stone and bow down to them, so the sin of idolatry can be more difficult to discern.
13 The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.
14 He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.
15 It is man’s fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.
16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”
17 From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me; you are my god.”
18 They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand.
19 No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”
20 He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?” (Isaiah 44:12-20)
It’s a great illustration of the great exchange. Why would anyone choose to worship a block of wood instead of the glory of the immortal God? This is the strong passage against idolatry because it speaks to the obvious and ridiculous nature of cooking with a piece of wood and bowing down in worship to a different section of the same block of wood. But Paul said we have all made this great exchange. Even though the average person in the U.S. does not actually bow down to a wooden idol, we have all made the great exchange.
There are three other exchanges in this passage. All of us have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. We have all exchanged worship and service to the creator for worship and service to the created things. Finally, some have exchanged natural relations with unnatural relations. Most of you are aware that this is a key New Testament text on homosexuality. I am not going to belabor this last exchange except to point out that this is sin is parallel with and similar to all other sins. Choosing unnatural relations over natural ones is the same thing as choosing a lie over the truth, created things instead of the Creator and copies of sacred things instead of the glory of the immortal God. All sin fits into this model of human nature. We have missed out on something perfect, something eternal, beautiful and full of joy and have instead chosen something worthless and deadly.
You
may have been wondering what that coupon in your bulletin is all about. I have a
big wad of $1 bills in my hand. What I would like you to do is to bring your
coupon down to the front and I will give you a one dollar bill in exchange. Come
one, I want everyone to get their money.
Now for those who, for whatever reason, did not exchange their coupon for a one dollar bill, you need to know that none of you are saved!—at least in my analogy. Those of you who exchanged the money chose to give up a worthless piece of paper to receive something of worth. This is a picture of salvation—being a recipient of the infinite grace of God when you did nothing to earn that grace.
Now for all of those who are holding a one dollar bill, I want to offer you the chance for one more exchange. I have here a bag of garbage and any of you can come down front and exchange your one dollar bill for the piece of garbage of your choosing. Hurry up before all of the good pieces of garbage are taken! Doesn’t anyone want a nice piece of garbage, perhaps a used Kleenex or some coffee grounds?
The money and the garbage are meant to represent the great exchange. All people are given the choice between something of infinite value—the glory and grace of God, or something of temporary value. We could ask, why would anyone choose a piece of garbage over a one dollar bill? Choosing garbage instead of money is like choosing the things on the bottom line of this chart—images of man, lies and created things. To us who are believers, the choice seems like an obvious one—choose the grace of God—go after the thing that really matters. But for the unbeliever the choice is not all that simple. Unbelievers know that when they make a choice for God they must surrender their allegiance to someone other than themselves. You see, when they worship and serve created things, as Paul said, they themselves are among the created things. When I choose to worship God it means giving up the right to worship myself.
As Christians, we have already received the grace of God. We realize that worship and service to the Creator is of infinite value compared to worshipping creation. From now on we will always choose a one dollar bill over a piece of garbage—or will we? Do you realize that everything you own has the capacity to become an idol to you—a block of wood—a piece of garbage? Any of my possessions can grab a hold of my heart and at that moment, I have just exchanged the glory of God for a piece of garbage. Please don’t misunderstand the analogy. I am not saying that such a choice means that you lose your salvation. You can’t push the analogy that far, but we can miss out on something far better. Any of my possessions can become an idol to me, but anything I don’t own or would like to own can also become and idol to me. At the moment any possession—something I already own or would like to own—grabs hold of my heart, I have just made a great exchange. Every relationship can potentially become an idol. Am I concerned with pleasing others around me? Do I worry about what I look like? Am I pre-occupied with what others think of me? Am I so desperate for someone to like me that I will give up something eternal to get something that won’t last?
Every sin we commit is a great exchange—we choose a piece of garbage instead of the glory and grace of God. But this applies to so-called sins of omission as well. If I am to lay up treasures in heaven—from which I got the title for this message series: Hoarding Heavenly Treasures—then I must let go of the treasures in this life in order to gain the treasures in the next life. One way to hoard heavenly treasure is to give generously to God. But if we don’t give generously to God then we don’t lay up treasures in heaven and we have just exchanged an earthly treasure for a heavenly one.
Do you see the big picture now? The great exchange means choosing temporary treasures and idols instead of God. This is not just a matter of finances and possessions. Every time we are angry with our children, we have exchanged the glory of God for a piece of garbage. When we neglect Bible reading in favor of watching TV we have just exchanged the glory of God for a piece of garbage. These are all sins, but sin is not just a matter of doing something bad, sin means we lose out on something good. And as we will learn next week, the majority of our good things are hoarded in Heaven for us. Each night as we lay our head on the pillow we can reflect back on the day and ask ourselves—“How many times did I exchange the glory of God for a piece of garbage?” That is a good question to ask, because it is the same question Jesus will ask us when we get to Heaven.
Rich Maurer
October 3, 2004