To the world in which we live, faith and hope seem completely impractical.
The world says, "Iwill believe only what Ican see and Iwill act only on what Iknow to be fact." anything else is total and complete impracticality.
But, as eugene peterson rightly says: hope determined actions participate in the future God is bringing into being. If you want to be a part of God's plans, it requires that you act on the basis of faith and hope and not on the basis of practicality.
Such actions are rarely seen as spectacular. At the most they are seen as foolish and impractical.
In this series on the stewarrdship of faith we have made the following conclusions.
Consider the story of jeremiah. Some say he was the prophet who wouldn't give up. Others have called him the legs of the hound of heaven. For over forty years he put his life on the line, preaching a very unpopular message to judah, a message ofGod's judgement by babylon. God's chastening love for his people would mean exile, captivity and the loss of home, families and religion.
Not a very popular message. But if you wanted a picture of a man who would not bend under pressure and who stood solidly against the prevailing tides of his society, jeremiah was such a man.
More importantly, if you want to meet a man who puts faith into practice, jeremiah is, again, the man. He is a beacon of light to us who live nearly 3,000 years later but find ourselves in the midst of a culture devoid of faith and faithfulness.
Today as we conclude this series on the stewardship of faith, we need to see jeremiah as a man who by faith, literally invested in the kingdom of God. He put his money where his heart was because he knew that his heart would eventually be where his money was.
He did so knowing that it would be an act scorned and ridiculed by his peers as impractical. For him, however, it was supremely practical for he trusted the God who called him and who promised restoration.
Here is his story. It is in the tenth year of zedekiahs reign. Babylon had already taken samaria. Judah had asked to forge an alliance with egypt to fend off nebuchadnezzar. But they had deserted and the full force of nebuchadnezzar's army was now camped outside jerusalem ready to overthrow it and take the last remaining survivors into exile. It was judahs darkest hour.
King zedekiah believed jeremiah to have been involved in complicitty with the enemy so he had him arrested. In reality he was probably trying to do damage control to his public image more than anything else.
From his imprisonment in the palace of the king, he can look about and see the armies encamped about the city on what he calls seige mounds. It looked bleak.
While in prision, two things happen. The word of the Lord came to him and told him that his cousin hanamel was going to come to him for a visit. Then hanamel did come just as the Lord had said. He then says "Ihave this nice little piece of property. Why don't you buy it."
Now real estate speculation at this time was not really a wise thing. Babylkon was poised ready to destroy jerusalem and take everypone away as captives. You are in prison and don't know if you will get out and or survive. Sure, go ahead. Buy some property.
Have you seen the ads where you can buy your very own star and name it after whomever you wish.
How about someone who comes to your door and says that america is about to launch a manned expedition to mars. I have a little piece of properrty on it, a fixer upper, right on the main canal or just as war in the middle east was at its height, someone wants to sell you shares in iranian oil wells.
I'm sure jeremiahs instincts were to say: "hey, Imay be nothing more than a country preacher but Iam not stupid. I was speaking in symbols, not reality.
But instead he said okay, Iam willing to put my wallet where my heart is. I'll buy your field. Seventeen shekels. Its a deal. I am going to trust God at his word that someday it will be worth something. So he gave the deed to baruch for safe keeping.
This story exemplifies some very important characteristtics of faith; particularly in matters relating to money.
Chesterton wrote that as long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitudes. It is only when matters are hopeless that hope begins to be a strength at all. Like all Christian virtues it is as unreasonable as it is impractical.
Hope is putting faith to work when doubting would be easier.
It is in contrast to living in despair
It is investing in the future of Gods plans
That is how jeremiah lived his life. That is why he invested in real estate when everyone else was probably trying to sell theirs. It didn't make sense. It wasn't practical. But he lived in hope of Gods promises and he acted on that hope.
He didn't pray before acting. He prayed afterward. Obedience is an immediate response of faith. It takes hope from the realm of wishful thinking and elevates it to the positition of actions and accomplishments.
The thing God was asking jeremiah to do was without warrant or precedent from the standpoint of external cisrcumstances. To the outside observer, it looked like he was throwing his money down the proverbial drain. And yet jeremiah beliieved God at his word and so he acted.
When God lays somnething on your heart, you must act in faith. You don't need to pray about that. You already know that is what God wants you to do.
Helen keller said "Iwill not just live my life. I will not just spend my life. I will invest my life..":
I think that depicts jeremiahs attitude. He didn't know if he would get out of prison. He didn't know if he would live to see the day the deed to that property could be reclaimed and it could be his. He didn't know how long his people would be in exile. But he knew God's pusposes outlasted all those considerations. As long as God was there, no human power could ultimately reign and jeremiah wanted to have a stake in the future of God's plans for his people.
Let me ask you a personal question. How have you investeed in the future of God's work in las cruces?
You see, practicality would tell us that house payments, car payments, braces, personal entertainment and comfort are all the most important future that God has for us. After all, isn't that how we spend our lives andd our money.
Isn't it true that the Gods of materialism have encamped about us and laid us under seige so that we have a difficult time imagining that we could make a meaningful investment in Gods' future plans.
When we fail to live with hope in the promises of God and fail to have enough faith to obey him when he asks us to give the top portion of our income to his work, aren't we in fact giving in to the enemy.
A true story about a little girl and 57 pennies helps make thepoint even better than jeremiah. She also demonstrated a deliberate act of impractical faith.
You see, one day she walked several blocks from her philadelphia home to a sunday school that she wanted to attend. She was met at the door and told that she could not come in because there was no more room.
She went home and started saving her pennies to help the sunday school grow. Two yearrs later she fell ill and died. Under herr pillow they found a small bag and a note. In the bag werre 57 pennies and the note read: "to help make the little temple bigger so that more children can go to sunday school."
The pastor of the church told the story to his congregation and soon newspapers had heard of it and it became a national human interst story . People from around the world began sending in contributions in this little girls name and before long there was a sizable fund. Today that church temple sanctuary, can seat over 3300. Not only is there a sunday school, but temple university.
One persons impractical but deliberate act of faith can make a difference. Jeremiah's did. This little girls did. Yours can.
Are you wiling to invest in the future of God's promises by obedience to his word.