The Doctrine of Nonaccumulation

All right, well, good morning, and God bless you all for being here. I hope that we can keep on with that theme of preaching the kingdom of God. That's why we're here, and we have a burden to do that out on the streets, yes, and here in this building as well.

As many of you know, I was asked to speak a series at a Bible school back in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, A Godly View of Finances. That was five messages on the subject of finances, and this was Monday through Friday, and they were assigned to me. So we're right now at the middle one.

I'm re-preaching them here in Halsey, and we already did the number one and two, so we're up to number three now. Just for a little bit of review, the first time, the first session, I gave a little bit of my testimony. Now, I don't know if you remember these handouts, these little cards that we gave out, compound interest calculator, told my story of how when I was young, I was excited about the idea of compound interest and accumulating wealth through compound interest, and how I was excited about getting people involved in that until someone confronted me with another way of thinking about this, some of the words of Jesus.

Second message, this was a different handout. I gave you these pieces of paper, and this was taking us back into the Old Testament and looking at some of the Old Testament principles of finances that the Bible gives us, principles like stewardship, divine ownership, principles, responsibility in our work, diligence. Are we diligent in working? Are we responsibility in giving, responsibility in controlling our spending? These are things that a lot of people these days don't know.

Responsibility in honesty, responsibility with debt, responsibility in planning, responsibility in keeping records, receiving counsel, and finally, responsibility in investing. And so I have some more handouts I would like to give this morning, and before we do that, I just want to say, when I was back in Pennsylvania, they assigned me these messages, and they gave me one hour to do them. Now here, our typical sermon time is more like 45 minutes, because we kind of think we're going to quit at 12.

So I'll tell you what, we're just going to push off that quitting time to 12.15. So don't watch the clock until you get to 12.15, then you can start yawning and looking at your watch. If that's what you do normally at 12, wait until 12.15 this morning, okay? But now we have some handouts to give to you, and I'm not sure I have enough for everybody to have one, and so we're going to be a little selective here. We're going to start with those who are Bible school age.

I believe at Shippensburg, it was 16 on up. So if you're between the ages of 16 and 30, and you're single, you've got to be single to go to Bible school, right? Okay, if you're single between the ages 16 and 30, you can stand up. Let's see how many we have.

Okay, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Okay, we've got 14 so far. Let's expand this, and what I would like to do, even if you don't get one of these handouts, is that you're hopefully sitting by someone who has one.

That's the hope. So let's have the men stand up, the married men. Could you please stand up, and let's see how many we've got of you.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and so now we're up to 9, 20. Let's see, what did I say we have? 14, so that means we're up to 23. Okay, let's keep going.

How about anybody that's single over 30? If you're single, everybody stay standing if you've been standing. Anybody single or you're here without a spouse, all right? Let's just put it that way. If you're here without a spouse, you can stand up.

We've got a few more. Okay, and I think we're up to almost 30 right now. What did I say, 16 and up? What if we would drop that to 15? Do we have any 15-year-olds? No? Okay.

I'll tell you what we're going to do. If everybody here, you two guys and the guys on that next row, if you'd come up here, I'd like your help to hand these out. Everybody else stay standing until you get your handout, okay? And here's what I'd like you to do.

I'd like you to take a packet of these handouts, take the plastic off, keep one for yourself, and give the others to four other people that are standing, okay? So just hand them out, and as soon as you have one, you can sit down. So go ahead. You can go ahead and pass those out.

All right, thank you for that. Jeremy King, I've got two extra up here. After everybody has it, if you could just keep an eye out and see, is there anybody that's not within eyeshot of one of these handouts, okay, one of these books? So I'm going to put these on the front bench right up here, and if there are extra, they can go back in the box.

And I'll go ahead and start here while you're getting those right there. I think there's just a couple extra. So just keep an eye out and see if everybody is able to see one somewhere, and if we need to borrow a few back, we can.

Okay. Well, part of my own journey, I shared some of this back in the first session, but it had to do with this thing of Bible school. And Bible school, when I was young, we had a session on stewardship at Bible school, okay? And by the way, these books are gifts for you.

If you'd like to keep them, you're welcome to keep them. If anybody says, well, I don't want it, well, you can put it back in the box. I'll take it home.

But if you want it, it's yours to keep. When I was in Bible school, when I was young, I suppose I was 18, 19, I think I went again when I was like 23 years old, something like that, to Bible school. And we were taught on this subject of stewardship.

And part of the teaching about stewardship was that we're supposed to work hard and that we're supposed to control our spending and tithe and things like that. But then if we have extra money to invest it, to store it up, to accumulate it here on this earth, and if you end up at the end of your life with a large supply of earthly wealth, then you've probably been a good steward. That was a teaching that I received.

But then when I was a young married man, I received some teaching from a different Bible school. And this speaker said something else. He said these words.

He said he was preaching through the Sermon on the Mount. And he said these words. He said Jesus literally meant, when he got to that passage on lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, he said Jesus literally meant that we are not supposed to accumulate unused wealth on this earth.

I looked at these two teachings, what I had received as a young man, what I was hearing now as a young married man, and I said those two things don't go together. There's a conflict there. I began my own personal study of this teaching on economics.

I went through the Bible. I went through early Christian teachings. I went through various other, anything I could get my hands on to find out what is really the truth about this subject of economics.

And at the end of that study, I came to a shocking conclusion, a shocking realization that I had been teaching, promoting and teaching something that I never knew was in the Bible, that was the opposite of what I was now discovering was in the Bible. What I was discovering was in the Bible was that there was an entire doctrine that I had never realized before. And I was teaching the opposite of this doctrine.

The name of the doctrine is called the doctrine of non-accumulation. You can see it on the front. You can leave your book shut for right now.

But at the bottom, it has that term, the doctrine of non-accumulation. What does that doctrine say? The doctrine says basically that Jesus says that we as his followers, this is part of the kingdom gospel that we're supposed to be preaching, are to distribute rather than accumulate earthly wealth. Let's talk about that word doctrine for just a moment, though.

What is a doctrine? When we talk about a doctrine, what do we mean? Well, a doctrine is a principle. It's a position. It's a body of principles.

We talk about sometimes the doctrine of non-resistance. And I grew up learning the doctrine of non-resistance. It's the teaching that Jesus really meant, that we're not supposed to resist evil.

We're supposed to turn the other cheek. We're supposed to put up our swords. We're not supposed to fight back.

Another doctrine we learned about, the doctrine of non-conformity. The Bible says we're supposed to not be conformed to this world. We're supposed to come out from among them and be separate, that the Lord says.

Another one is the doctrine of non-swearing of oaths, things that we're not supposed to do. And not all Christians teach these things. These are things that are in the Bible, but there's disagreements among Christians.

And some say, no, we don't need to actually practice the doctrine of non-resistance. But here I was looking at another doctrine, the doctrine of non-accumulation. I had never seen before.

I'd never been taught before. I didn't realize it was in the Bible. In fact, I was teaching people the exact opposite of this.

And I had to rethink a lot of things during that time that I was, that whole period of my life. And it looked to me as I went through the scriptures that Jesus said almost more about this doctrine, or this teaching, or this body of principles than almost any other subject that he taught about. And so anytime we have a teaching from the Bible, there's a few different ways we can look at it.

There are a few different things we can focus on. One way of looking at it is doctrinal. Okay, so I'm just going to put it up there.

Doctrinal. The second way we can look at it is practical. And the third way we can look at it is inspirational.

And these things inspire—get this spelling right. And anybody is welcome to come up and correct my spelling if you would like to. But doctrinal, practical, and inspirational.

And these things are all necessary to really put into practice what God wants us to put into practice. However, some of these pieces of the puzzle are different in their focus, in their emphasis. Doctrine answers the question, what? What did Jesus really say? Practical answers the question, how? How do we put it into practice? Inspirational answers the question, why? Why should we do this? Why did Jesus teach it, number one, and then why does it make sense for us to actually follow Jesus in doing this? Why should we be excited about it? Why should we be cheerful about it? Why did God give this teaching? If He really loves us, is it really a loving thing that God has given us, these teachings? And I'm going to tell you right off the bat, right at the beginning, that if there's one that we're not going to finish here this morning, it's this one right here.

It's the practical. The practical is one that's a lifetime of putting it into practice. But what I would like to do is give you the tools to put it into practice.

And the tools are right here, the doctrinal and the inspirational. And we're going to focus in on these here, the doctrinal and the inspirational. And you see what's happening.

As we focus on these two, things are spilling over into the practical. More and more answers are coming on the practical. But I'm going to tell you right at the beginning of this message, by the time we get done, you will not have all the answers to the practical, how to put this into practice.

There's no way we can possibly do this. And there's a trap that a lot of times people fall into at this stage of a teaching like this. And that is they go straight to the practical.

And they say, well, what do I need to do in this situation? What should I do here? And by not spending enough time on the doctrinal and inspirational and going straight to the practical, they end up detracting from these two. They end up getting off track and not getting grounded in what does Jesus actually say, and instead coming up with a practical application that can be then argued against. We don't want to do this.

We want to spend the time. We want to lay the groundwork. We want to focus in on the doctrinal and the inspirational to some extent and give us the groundwork, the foundation, so that we can take home the tools we have to then focus in on the practical.

So that's a little bit what we're doing this morning. That's a little bit the focus of why we're here. That was the focus, I guess, in some ways, of the five messages I preached back at Shippensburg.

And I was encouraging these young people and I'm encouraging you that there's a very simple question I'd like you to ask and hopefully answer by the end of this session. And that question is a yes or no question. So it's a very simple question.

But the question goes like this. Is the doctrine of non-accumulation a true doctrine? Yes or no? It's either one or the other. It either is or it isn't.

Is it true? Is it not? Is it a true Bible doctrine? That's the goal. So keep that in mind. Keep that goal in mind as we go through this morning.

Which is it? Is it true? Is it false? Is it a false doctrine? Is it a true doctrine? Let's talk a little bit about this interaction here between the doctrinal and the practical and how those two things interact with each other. We're going to use as an example the doctrine of non-resistance. You know, there's a lot of people today in Christianity who've never heard of the doctrine of non-resistance.

It's a foreign doctrine to them. Let's talk about one of these individuals who doesn't know about the doctrine of non-resistance. Let's call him Robert.

So Robert, he grew up in a conservative Christian home. Let's call him a Baptist. He's a conservative Baptist man.

And he votes Republican every single election. And he's a supporter of the right-wing causes. He goes to a Baptist Bible college.

And at that Baptist Bible college, there's a recruiter there for the military. And they're encouraging people, go take part in military service. And so Robert does.

He signs up. He goes through boot camp. And he joins the military.

And he actually does very well. He says, this is my duty to serve my country. He drained his time in the military.

He sees a little bit of active combat. He fires his gun a few times. He's not sure if he actually killed anybody or not.

But if he did, it doesn't matter. It's okay because he's serving his country. It's part of his God-given duty.

And, you know, as Robert keeps on in his military career, he receives promotions. He goes, he becomes a lieutenant. And then a captain.

And then a major. And then a colonel. And I hope I got those in the right order.

His family is proud of Robert because he's a success. He's successful in everything that he does. But they compare Robert somewhat to his younger brother, Billy.

You see, Billy is Robert's younger brother. And he never really was a success. Billy, he's got some problems.

He doesn't really have self-discipline. Billy, he's dabbled in drugs. Billy, he had a hard time holding a job.

He just couldn't really get into working very hard. Billy tried to join the military. But he made it about halfway through boot camp.

And he dropped out. And Billy is just the epitome of a failure. But their family is disappointed in Billy.

But they're proud of Robert. They look at Robert. He's a success.

And not only that, as he is successful in his military career, he's also a good Christian. You see, when Robert has the opportunity, he teaches people about Jesus. He tells them how to be saved.

People that he meets there in the military. You know, when he's stationed close to his home church, he attends church very regularly. In fact, he even teaches Sunday school sometimes when he has that opportunity.

One day, Robert had something happen to him. He picked up his Bible and he started reading the New Testament. He started reading the Sermon on the Mount.

And he reads some verses he's never seen before. He reads how it says, Jesus said, Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek.

Put up your sword. He says, If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight. Jesus said, Resist not evil.

And Robert is absolutely shocked. He's never seen these verses before in all of his Bible study. But he begins to study and he examines all the verses in the New Testament he could find on this subject of non-resistance.

And he examines early Christian writings. And he examines all the resources he can. But at the end of Robert's study, he comes to a very firm conclusion.

He believes, he says, that the doctrine of non-resistance is a true doctrine. Now, he's not sure what to do with this doctrine. He's convinced doctrinally that it's true.

But now he's got to put it into practice. And he doesn't know what to do. Now, he immediately starts being nicer to people.

He forgives people that have hurt him in the past. That's something that's pretty obvious. He does that.

But what else? What do I do with my military career? He says, Well, maybe I should switch to being a medic. So, you know, I'm helping people live instead of dying. Maybe that would be the answer.

Maybe he says I should become a chaplain so I don't even have to carry a gun at all. Or maybe if I am carrying a gun, I'll just take the bullets out and leave them back at base. And I'll carry an unloaded gun through the field.

You know, just so I'm not tempted to shoot anybody. Maybe that's the answer. Maybe he says I should become like Desmond Doss.

How many have heard the story of Desmond Doss? A lot of you here. You should listen to it if you haven't. It's an amazing story about a man who was in the military, but endeavoring to practice non-resistance.

He refused to even touch a gun. And somehow they let him through. But amazing miracles in that story.

But he says, Well, maybe that's how you should put this doctrine into practice. You see, doctrinally, he's convinced. Practically, he's still wrestling with it.

He's not sure what to do. He starts talking about leaving the military. And now his family becomes very concerned about Robert.

You see, Robert, you've been excited about this doctrine, and we're not sure we even agree with it. But now you're talking about leaving the military. This is the very identity that has got you all this success.

And now his family is really concerned that Robert has really gone off the deep end. His family says it's crazy. Why would you throw away all that hard work? So this is where Robert is.

Convinced doctrinally, still struggling with how to put it into practice. Meanwhile, there's another young man. This young man grew up unfamiliar with another doctrine, the doctrine of non-accumulation.

This young man's name is William. Grew up Anabaptist. He didn't smoke.

He didn't drink. He didn't watch movies or TV. He didn't listen to the radio.

He didn't vote. He didn't join the military. He went to a Mennonite Bible school.

He got a good job. He was told when he got a good job, if you make extra money, put it into a retirement account. So he did.

He was adding to this account consistently. And it started to grow, and his investments did quite well. And he sees a house that he could buy that's for sale, and he buys this house.

And pretty soon, the house next to it is available. So he buys that house also and rents those out. These house values are going up.

The moment they go up in value, it frees up equity so he can buy a third one. So pretty soon, he's on house number three, four, and five. Meanwhile, his retirement accounts are growing at a rapid pace as well.

Pretty soon, he decides he's going to start his own business. The business becomes profitable. He can now make more money running his own business than he could working for somebody else.

And that allows him to put even more money into his retirement accounts. He is faithful at attending church, and he tithes regularly, gives 10% to the church, but he's making a lot more money than he needs. And so he's able to put a lot of his extra resources into this retirement account and into these other investments that he has.

William's family is proud of him. They look at William and they say, he is a success. They compare him to his younger brother, Bobby.

You see, Bobby, he always struggled financially. He could never make ends meet. He also struggled spiritually, Bobby did.

And Bobby lacked diligence. He didn't work very hard. He lacks discipline.

He didn't know how to control himself and his spending. He keeps falling into moral sin. Bobby does.

Bobby's kind of in and out of church membership, back and forth. Just never really made much of himself. But William wasn't that way.

William was a success. He was successful in all parts of life. He was a faithful church member.

Eventually, William gets ordained. He becomes a deacon. He preaches the gospel.

He helps lead the church. He goes off and he teaches Bible school. Meanwhile, his business keeps growing.

Meanwhile, his investments keep growing. His retirement account is well up into the millions of dollars by now. William has, and his properties, those are also worth millions.

So he's a multi-millionaire by every definition. But then one day, something happens to William. He picks up his Bible and he starts reading the Sermon on the Mount.

And he is absolutely shocked by what he reads. Don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

Sell your possessions and give to the poor, in Luke 12.33. He's so shocked, he says, I need to find out what the rest of the New Testament says. He starts turning through the New Testament, finding other verses that talk about this thing of money, wealth, and possessions. At the end of William's study, he becomes absolutely convinced that the doctrine of non-accumulation is a true doctrine.

But he asks, what do I do with this? Doctrinally, he's convinced, but practically, he doesn't know what to do. He immediately says, well, you know what, there's poor people in this world. There's homeless in Eugene.

There's people in Ukraine. There's people that need this money more than I do. And so he starts giving more than 10%.

He starts giving 20, 30, 40% of his income. But what else should he do? He starts talking about cleaning out his retirement accounts and giving it to people who need it more than he does. He starts talking about selling off some of his investments, his properties.

And now his fellow believers are looking at him and saying, you're crazy. Are you losing your mind, William? What's going on here? You're getting obsessed with this. William has been convinced doctrinally.

He's still struggling practically with what to do, and he doesn't have all the answers. That gives you a little picture of how these two things right here interact with each other, the doctrinal and the practical. So what's the goal? The goal of this book? It's to convince us.

It's to have us, well, first of all, to pose the question, is the doctrine of non-accumulation a true doctrine? Secondly, it's to inspire us, the inspirational part. It's to inspire us that this is good news. It's not bad news.

To obey Jesus, to put into practice what Jesus has said, is a wonderful benefit to you and to the kingdom of God. You will not be miserable if you do things God's way. You'll be happy.

You'll be joyful. You'll be a cheerful giver. God has blessings he wants to pour out on you.

So let's open our books. This is our textbook for this morning. Open it up to page 5 and 6. Actually, go to page 6, first of all.

And one thing we're going to look at here is simply what the definition of this doctrine is. What does this doctrine say? And basically it says, to condense into a few words, Jesus commands us to distribute rather than accumulate earthly wealth. That's in a very tidy little nutshell.

Turn the page back one page, page 5. At the bottom of page 5, it gives a little bit more lengthy definition of the doctrine. The doctrine's stating Jesus forbids his people to accumulate, but rather commands them to distribute. You can read that if you would like.

Now, remember the goal. The goal is to determine is this doctrine true or not. But if we're going to determine whether it's true or not, we have to look at something.

What are we going to look at? We're going to look at Scripture. But how do we look at Scripture? People look at Scripture and get all kinds of crazy ideas these days. How do we keep from falling into a crazy idea and get the idea that God wants us to get? Here's some principles.

Turn to page number 10. Page number 10, and this chapter talks about thoughts on interpreting Scripture. So, here's some principles we're going to use as we go through the various Scriptures.

Some principles to help guide us. Number one, let's accept as the correct interpretation the one that is most literal. Take it as literal as possible if it's taken in context.

Don't take something out of context, but take it as much as possible, the most literal. Number two, to begin with the very words of Jesus as the foundation. Number three, to recognize that there's a difference in dispensation between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

That's important. If we don't recognize that, we're going to get off track. Number four, to recognize that obedience to Jesus is a necessary part of a saving relationship with Him.

Number five, to recognize that Christ's Sermon on the Mount is meant to be lived by us today and is not to be set aside for some future time. You know, there's whole denominations that are built around some of the ideas that contradict these very principles. Whole denominations that will tell you that obedience to Jesus is not necessary.

You don't need to obey Jesus to be a Christian. You could. It'd be nice if you would, but you don't have to.

There's whole denominations that will tell you that the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, has been pushed off to some future dispensation. We don't believe that. We believe it's for us to obey.

Let's talk about point number four just a little bit more in depth about this idea of obedience. Is obedience necessary or not? Look down at the bottom of page 11. If you have your books open, down at the bottom of page 11, let's find out.

Is obedience really necessary? Here's what Jesus says. You are my friends. If you do whatsoever, I command you.

And hereby do we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. If you love me, keep my commandments. Turn the page.

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and enter through the gates to the city. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house on a rock.

Keep going down lower in the page, page 12. What's the condition of those who decide they don't want to obey Jesus? And why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do the things which I say? Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father in heaven. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And there's a few other verses you can look at as well. How important is it to obey Jesus? I think we would agree it is important.

So let's look at then at what are some of the commands that Jesus has given. Turn to page 15. Page 15, beginning at chapter 5. There are two main commands, two main pillars.

This chapter is called the first main pillar. What is this command? Matthew 6, verse 19 says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. Now, I remember when I was first looking at this, I looked at that word treasure, and I said, what's a treasure? Well, treasure must be something that you treasure.

That would make sense, right? Except the problem is that that's not what Jesus was saying. Jesus didn't use the word treasure as something you treasure. It simply meant wealth, accumulation, money, treasure.

And so that kind of shocked me that that was what Jesus was saying. Don't accumulate for yourselves wealth on this earth. Let's go to the second main pillar.

Turn to chapter number 6, which is up on page 20. And this was probably the one that got my attention more than any other verse, that shocked me more than any other verse in the Bible, when I ran across this one. And this is in Luke 12, verse 33, where Jesus says, about two-thirds of the way down the first page, sell your possessions and give to the poor.

Or, let's go over to page 21, and there's a few other translations. And this is what I looked through other translations and stuff. Here's King James, sell that ye have and give alms.

NIV, sell your possessions and give to the poor. NASB, sell your possessions and give to charity. Now, what shocked me was not that this verse was in the Bible.

This command was in the Bible. I knew that command was in the Bible. I'd heard many times the story of the rich young ruler coming to Jesus.

Jesus said, sell and give. He had an extra word in there, sell all that you have in that case. But sell and give, I knew that was in the Bible.

But what shocked me was that the rich young ruler was not in this chapter at all. Luke chapter 12 doesn't mention the rich young ruler anywhere. Now, why is that important? Why is it important that the rich young ruler is not in Luke 12? Well, if he's not in Luke 12, then who was Jesus talking to? He was talking to his disciples.

Why is that important? Here's why it's important. It's important because of the Great Commission. Matthew chapter 28, Jesus told his disciples, I want you to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Go and teach and then baptize. And then he said something very important. He says, teach them to obey the things I've commanded you.

Who's you? My disciples. The things I've commanded you are the things I want you to go throughout the whole world and teach others to obey. That's why this verse, being preached to Jesus' disciples, grabbed my attention in a way I didn't know what to do with it.

I was absolutely shocked that it was there. Let's go forward some more. Well, first of all, let's turn to page 22.

And I want to ask you a question. When Jesus gave the command to sell and give, did he do it apologetically? Did he do it sadly? Hey guys, sorry. Got some bad news for you today.

The rest of what I teach is good news, but today it's bad news. And today's bad news for you is you need to go sell and give. Is that how Jesus did it? Or did he give it as good news? Think about this.

Let's read the rest of the verse. See, remember context is important. What did Jesus say? He said, sell that you have and give alms.

Provide yourselves bags. This is at the top of 22 if you want to follow along. Provide yourself bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.

Jesus was saying this is an investment opportunity. By selling, by giving to the poor, you are making an investment. And it's a good investment.

It's one you can keep forever. It's good news, not bad news. Not everybody takes it as good news.

The rich young ruler didn't take it as good news. But Jesus gave it as good news. And the question I have is, why do people not take it as good news? Well, think about this.

Here's a question. We're trying to answer the question, why do people not take it as good news? Suppose you would go outside these doors and you'd go, well, let's say you'd go to the next town. Get out of Halston, get out of Harrisburg.

Let's go down to Junction City. And you take a walk through Junction City. You get into a neighborhood there, kind of middle class houses.

And you decide to watch this one door. You climb a tree and you just sit there watching. Pretty soon here comes a salesman up the driveway, the gravel driveway.

He knocks on the door. And a lady comes to the door. She's the homeowner.

She answers the door and says, hi, how can I help you? Salesman says, I see this gravel in your driveway. I would like to have that gravel in your driveway. I want to trade you what I have for this gravel.

What do you have? Well, I've got gold, pure gold. And I'm going to trade you one wheelbarrow load of gold for one wheelbarrow load of your gravel. You give me one wheelbarrow load or a bucket full or however much you can give of your gravel, I'm going to give you the same amount of pure gold.

And the lady gets a scowl on her face. She looks at that salesman. She says, what do you mean? I need that gravel.

That gravel keeps the mud off my shoes. It keeps the mud off the tires of my car. I need that gravel.

I don't think I'm interested in your offer, Mr. Salesman. Now, you're sitting up there in that tree watching her and you're thinking, what in the world is she thinking? What's her problem? Is she wrong that gravel can keep mud off tires? No, she's not wrong. Gravel's pretty handy that way.

What's her problem? Her problem is she doesn't understand the value of gold. She has no clue how much gold is worth. She must have never heard of gold before.

And it's the same way when we start dragging our feet about Jesus' teaching on economics. He's offering us to trade treasures on earth for treasure in heaven, and we drag our feet. Why? Is it because we value treasures on earth too much? Maybe.

But it's probably more likely we don't value treasures in heaven enough. And that's what I would love to change. Think about what Jesus was offering.

We have good investments. We have bad investments in this world. Let me tell you the story of a good investment.

There was a man named Bill Gates. How many have heard of Bill Gates? Most of you. Bill Gates walked into a company called IBM back in the early 80s.

Bill Gates had something he wanted to sell to IBM, which was the biggest computer company in the world right then. It was a software program that Bill Gates had developed called MS-DOS. And Bill Gates walked up to the head honchos at IBM and says, Can I sell you my software for $50,000? And they looked it over.

They tested it. They said, No, we don't want it. Bill Gates said, No problem.

I'll go start my own company. And he did. He started Microsoft.

And he started marketing this program called MS-DOS until everybody wanted his software on their computer. IBM finally had to get it for their computers, if they wanted to sell computers, to the point where IBM was paying Bill Gates, instead of $50,000 to own the rights to his software, they were paying him a million dollars every year for the rights to MS-DOS. Well, how does that apply to me? Well, maybe some of you it doesn't apply to.

But to me, this is personal because, see, in 1986, I was 14 years old. Something else happened in 1986. Not only did I turn 14, but Bill Gates took his company public.

Microsoft went public, and they sold shares in Microsoft at $25 per share. Now, if I would have somehow, at age 14, scraped together $3,000 and bought shares in Microsoft at $25 per share, $3,000 back then would now be worth way up in the millions of dollars, well over $1 million today. I didn't do that in 1986.

I was doing other things at age 14. But if I would, that's what it would now be worth, probably $2,000,000 or $3,000,000 or $4,000,000 by now, since the time of this writing. Now, suppose I would say, well, you know what, I missed the opportunity then, but I'd still like to invest in Microsoft.

And I'd call up my broker. I'd say, hey, broker, I changed my mind. I would like to invest in Microsoft anyway at $25 per share.

Can I now get this $25 share that was back in 1986 when I was 14 years old, can I get it now, today, in 2025? What's the broker going to tell me? You're crazy. It's not available at $25 a share anymore. It's going to be thousands and thousands of dollars per share if you want to buy Microsoft today.

You see, that's the way good investments work. There's a window that's open and then it closes. That's the way good investments work.

If you don't walk through the window when it's open, you're going to miss the opportunity. If you miss it with Microsoft in 1986, the door closes and you're out of luck. I mean, you could still invest at today's price, but never again will you be able to get it at $25 a share.

And that's how treasures in heaven are. We today are in the land of the living. You all are in the land of the living.

We have the ability, the freedom, the opportunity, Jesus said, to lay up treasure in heaven. But it's a window that's open today, but it's going to close. And we can miss it.

It's possible to miss that opportunity. My encouragement is don't miss it. Turn to page 75 in these books.

Page 75, a chapter called The Real Mistake of the Rich Young Ruler. Most Christians know the story of the rich young ruler very well. Yet if you ask them what this man's problem was, most of them would give approximately the same answer.

They would shake their heads sadly and reply, this man simply loved his earthly possessions too much. Although it is certainly true this man loved his riches too much, he also made another very obvious mistake that most people miss. This mistake in many ways was an even greater mistake than valuing earthly possessions too much.

It was the mistake of valuing treasures in heaven too little. You see, Jesus had not said go throw your money into the sea just so he could be rid of it. Rather, he told him to give it to the poor.

And what would be the result of this action? He would receive, Jesus said, treasure in heaven. In other words, Jesus was presenting this young man with an investment opportunity, an opportunity to exchange treasures on earth for treasures in heaven. It was an invitation to put his money into an investment that would never be affected by moths or thieves.

The investment would never go down in value despite crashes in the stock market or slumps in the real estate market. This investment would earn an outstanding rate of return a hundredfold. This investment, unlike normal investments, would not even be taken from him at his day of death.

Instead, he would be able to enjoy it for all eternity. In the world wherein he lived, this young man was obviously a financial genius. His friends probably said everything he touched turned to gold.

In reality, though, his success had not come about by mere chance. It happened, rather, because he had trained himself to recognize a good investment when he saw one. This young man had become an expert at buying low and selling high.

He knew how to spot a bargain that no one else would recognize. He had also learned to know the right time to cut his losses and get out of an investment. Diligent research, consistent self-discipline, and natural ability had given him a position among the financial elite of his time.

To a man so obviously skilled at recognizing value when he saw it, this offer from Jesus should have jumped out as the deal of a lifetime. What an opportunity, he should have thought. I can trade assets that will last several decades at the most for assets that will last forever.

Yet, no matter how brilliant he was at picking stocks, playing the futures markets, or snatching up real estate bargains, this man somehow missed seeing the investment opportunity of the century. By simply giving to the poor in the name of Jesus, he could have gotten in on a deal that would have totally eclipsed the IPOs of Microsoft, Walmart, or General Electric. His net worth would have instantly leapfrogged that of John Rockefeller, Bill Gates, and King Solomon all put together.

Despite his genius in making investment decisions, he somehow overlooked the incredible worth of this deal he was being offered, and he chose to pass it up. Or, as we would say it today, he blew it big time. Will you and I blow it? We could look at other scriptures.

We could turn to chapter 7. We could talk about the issue of covetousness in chapter 9. For the sake of time, we're just going to go straight to the most important part of this book. This starts on page 99. It's the appendix.

Turn back to page 99. Let's look at the appendix of this book. The reason it's the most important is because it's just pretty much pure scripture, pure verses from the Bible.

What does Jesus say? What does the New Testament say about this subject of economics? Let's just take a look at some of these. What does the Bible really say? I would encourage you, go home, and if you don't look at any other part of the book, look at these verses. Look at what Jesus and the apostles said, starting with the question, what are Christ's commands? We already talked about how important Christ's commands are.

Now let's see what are Christ's commands. First of all, back to that first one we looked at already, Matthew 6.19a, in three different translations, says, number one, lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.

Make no store of wealth for yourselves on earth. And then there's some supporting scriptures for that command. Turn the page.

Let's look at a second command of Jesus. Luke 12.33. Sell that ye have and give alms. Sell your possessions and give to charity.

Or, give what property you have in exchange for money and give the money to the poor. And then there's some supporting verses there as well. Let's go to the bottom of page 100 and let's look at maybe some of the most important part of this whole thing.

Everybody follow along please. What are the principles behind Christ's command? Listen to these verses. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

You cannot serve God and mammon. For that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The love of money is the root of all evil.

He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. Blessed are you who are poor. Has not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom? And the rich has He sent empty away.

But woe unto you that are rich. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother has need and has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me. My God shall supply all your needs. Again we're asking the question, is the doctrine of non-accumulation really a true doctrine or not? Is it a false doctrine? Is it heresy? Or is it true? Hopefully these verses can help us answer that question.

On through the appendix on page 101, how important is it to obey Christ's commands? And then it's a whole bunch of verses there. Number two, what classes of people should obey Christ's commands? And then there's a bunch of verses there. Is this only for the rich people? Is it only for the poor people? Is it only for the middle class? Is it only for the Americans? Who's this for? Another question, to what extent should we obey Christ's commands? And again there's a number of verses that might help there answer some of those questions.

And then finally, what are the consequences for not obeying Christ's commands? And those are some pretty serious consequences. Let's turn to a history lesson, chapter 8, page 35. And this is just a story about something that actually happened in history.

Chapter 8, page 35. The year 1525 marked the beginning of one of the most powerful revivals in the history of the Christian church. Beginning with three men who baptized each other contrary to the teachings of the state church, this revival swept through Europe like a wildfire.

Stressing a renewed focus on Christ as Lord of our lives, unconditional love for all mankind, and literal obedience to the word of God, these Swiss brethren, also called Anabaptists, preached the gospel of Jesus everywhere they went. By the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, these men relentlessly spread the word of truth through a hungry society, and repentant sinners joined their ranks by the thousands. However, they also incurred the wrath of the governing authorities of the day and horrible persecution broke out.

Thousands upon thousands of these believers were slaughtered in the most gruesome ways imaginable. In response, the survivors began to flee from city to city, country to country, always carrying with them this radical message of the kingdom of God. This revival soon spread to the country of Holland, where another group of Anabaptists began to form called the Mennonites.

They also preached the gospel faithfully and experienced the same rapid growth as multitudes, one by one, humbly bowed the knee and surrendered themselves to the lordship of Jesus. But they also faced intense persecution. It gives an example there from Menno Simon's life.

Turn to page 36. Eventually, however, the persecution ended, and these Dutch Mennonites began to gain acceptance as upstanding members of society. Their outstanding growth continued for a time, so that by the late 1600s, there were approximately 160,000 of them living in Holland.

This wonderful time of peace, together with a strong work ethic and frugal lifestyle, led these Anabaptists into a time of great prosperity. Many of them were soon ranking among the wealthiest members of society and wielding great influence in the social and political realms. By all appearance, God was pouring out blessings on His church as never before.

The years of hardship were over, and success, it seemed, had finally arrived. But in the midst of this peace and prosperity, something strange began to happen. Instead of the amazing growth these Anabaptists experienced in their early years, their numbers began to decline drastically.

Instead of pulling people in from the world around them and making them disciples of Jesus, it seemed they had all they could do just to keep their own children in the faith. This trend continued until within a period of about 100 years, their numbers had shrunk from 160,000 to fewer than 28,000. So you could say, well, what went wrong with these people? You know, if you'd ask somebody, maybe they would say, well, we're basically the same as the Swiss Brethren.

We teach everything the same as they did. We just practice a little bit different. But is that true? Did they doctrinally hold the same teachings as the Swiss Brethren? And I think the answer finally comes down to what is a doctrine? And the answer is they were teaching things different than what the Swiss Brethren had on the subject of wealth.

On July 25, I'm now halfway down to page 37. On July 25, 1659, Tillman J. Van Brock wrote an introduction to his book called Martyr's Mirror. In his introduction, he warned his people, the Dutch Mennonites, that the dangers they were facing from prosperity and worldliness was far greater than the dangers their fathers had faced from martyrdom.

The question is, was he right? Was he right that martyrdom, as dangerous as that was, was not as dangerous as the prosperity that these people were now facing? And finally, at the bottom of the page, as Christians living in a country such as the United States of America, what lesson would God want us to learn from this account? You know, Christianity has existed in times of persecution and poverty. It has also existed in times of peace and prosperity. And if I would ask you, what about America? Which one are we? Are we in times of persecution and poverty? Or are we in a time of prosperity and peace? I think we'd all agree we're in a time of prosperity and peace.

Now, here's a question for you. The two doctrines we've been talking about this morning, nonresistance and nonaccumulation, of those two, of these two time periods, and the subject of nonresistance, which would be harder to practice nonresistance? During a time of peace or a time of persecution? I think we'd agree. During a time of persecution, nonresistance would be way more difficult during that time.

For me, nonresistance has not been that hard. You know, I just stay out of the military. I don't join the police force.

I don't, you know, it's not that hard. Maybe it could become hard in certain ways. What about the doctrine of nonaccumulation? If it's a true doctrine, I know maybe some of you are still wrestling with that.

That's fine. Go ahead and wrestle. But if it's a true doctrine, which is it more difficult to put into practice? During times of persecution and poverty? Or peace and prosperity? Think about that question.

There's chapters in this book that talk about the reasons. Chapter 10, there's objections. People have objections to this doctrine.

There's chapters that address those. Chapter 11, 12, 14. But the truth is this.

Listen to this. The truth is that the doctrine of nonaccumulation is designed to set us free. Free to channel all our extra resources and creative abilities into building the kingdom of God.

In the process, we are gaining a heavenly treasure, which is just as real. Listen. Heavenly treasure is just as real as a million dollars in the bank account.

It's just as real as a retirement account. It's just as real as gold bars or real estate. Plus, you get to keep it forever.

Think of that. Let's turn to chapter 18 here. Page 37.

We've got 16 minutes left. Page 77. An exchange of values.

Chapter 18. Before the doctrine of nonaccumulation can take its rightful place in our lives, it must first win the battle against its greatest enemy. This enemy, if not completely destroyed, will become an insurmountable barrier to the acceptance of this doctrine.

It doesn't matter how many scriptures there are to support the doctrine or the number of arguments that exist to prove it to be true. A person will never be able to truly accept this doctrine if this enemy is left standing. The name of this enemy is a wrong value system.

It's a value system that tells us the things of this world have genuine value as opposed to being worthless. It tells us that having much of this world's wealth is somehow better than having little of it. None of us are exempt from the effects of this erroneous value system.

All humans are born with it, and it usually becomes evident in children at a very young age. It's what drives people to own, to possess, to take control over things such as toys, food, money, businesses, and entire nations. We cannot truly accept the doctrine of nonaccumulation unless we first adopt the value system of Jesus.

And we can't adopt the value system of Jesus unless we give up the value system that we received at birth, the value system of this world. The world says that stocks and bonds and gold coins and land and savings accounts have real value. Christ says that nothing on earth has any real value except that which can be converted into heavenly treasure before we die.

The world says that financial security is something we should all strive to achieve. Christ says financial security is something that will destroy our faith and steal our love. The world says it's honorable to leave your children financially well off.

Christ says that such a move would endanger their souls because a rich person would hardly enter the kingdom of God. To accept the complete gospel of Jesus, including the doctrine of nonaccumulation, we must exchange our values for His values. In the deepest recesses of our heart, the things that the world considers valuable must be replaced with that which Christ considers valuable.

If you can completely internalize this upside-down value system, it will revolutionize your life. That which you used to think was important will now seem trivial. Your passion will become the kingdom of God.

Your thoughts and actions will be centered on eternity, not on this present life. If this exchange of values does not take place in your heart, however, this book will seem like a legalistic burden or even pure heresy. But once it has happened, everything else this book mentions will seem so obvious that writing it down will actually become rather unnecessary.

In closing, I just want to share a story that's in this book. Some of you have heard it. Some of you are young and you're growing up, and you maybe haven't heard it yet.

It's the story of Frank the Wise Investor, second to the last chapter in this book, if you want to read it. Frank was a man who wanted to be financially successful. Frank decided that he's going to work hard, and he's going to be a good investor.

And so he starts to get advice from people about how to be a good investor, somebody living for the future, like we learned about, you know, however many Sundays ago, the last session. He wanted to invest. He wanted to be a forward-thinking person, somebody who lives for the future.

And so he goes to his broker, and he talks about his desire to be successful. Remember, he's a man of this world, but he's a wise investor by this world standard. Frank goes to his broker, and he talks about what he should do.

And the broker says, I think you should probably get into investing in the stock market. If you're careful, you can probably do pretty well. Frank says, okay, I will.

And he says, specifically, Frank, I think you might consider a new stock that's just come out. This was back in 1986, and there's a new stock called Microsoft that you might want to consider investing in. And so Frank looks into Microsoft, and he gets excited about the potential that this company has.

He even goes and interviews Bill Gates. And at the end of that interview, at the end of his investigation, he's convinced that Microsoft is a good investment. And so Frank goes and cleans out his savings accounts and puts it into Microsoft.

He starts selling off some of his assets, having a garage sale or whatever it takes, and he takes that extra cash. He puts it into Microsoft stock. And then he goes to work, and he works hard.

He works a good 40-hour week, even working overtime when it's possible. And the extra money he has, he puts into Microsoft stock. And one day, he gets a phone call from Bill Gates.

Bill Gates had been impressed with Frank when they sat down for that interview. He says, Frank, would you come work for me at Microsoft? I will double your pay. Whatever you're getting paid right now, you will get twice as much if you come work for me.

And Frank doesn't have to think very long. He says, yes, I'd be glad to do that. And he goes and he works for Bill Gates at Microsoft Corporation.

And now he's making a lot more money than he needs to live on. And it gives him that much more freedom to put money into this investment, this stock account with Microsoft. He starts working his way up through the ranks of Microsoft.

He becomes a manager, and then a manager over the managers, whatever they're called. And he becomes a very faithful employee there at Microsoft. Until one day, Bill Gates calls him into the office again and says, Frank, you've been doing really well here.

And I keep raising your wages. Yes, I'm getting paid very well. Thank you, Mr. Gates.

But he says, Frank, we're opening a new branch over in the country of Russia. And I'd like you, Frank, to go and be the manager over in Russia. And he says, if you're willing, I know you have to give up your home here.

There's a lot you're going to have to give up to go over to Russia and manage Microsoft. So I'm going to triple your current wage. And Frank says, wow, that's quite an offer.

And he doesn't like the idea of moving to Russia, but he says, I'm going to do it. It will help me in my goal to be financially successful. And so he does.

He goes over to Russia, gets a little house to live in, gets a little car to drive, and starts working, managing the Microsoft branch over in Russia. And he's raking in big money. And somehow his Russian friends start to catch on how much he's really getting paid over there.

And then they look at the little house he's living in. They look at the little car he's driving. They say, Frank, you're crazy.

You could be driving the fanciest car in Russia with the money you're making. You could be living in the fanciest house in Russia if you wanted to. You could be dining at the fanciest restaurants with the kind of money you're making.

And Frank says, no, I'm sorry, guys. Listen, you just don't understand. I'm not here to enjoy myself primarily.

I'm here to, you know, accumulate money over in this place called America. And they say, America? Are you sure America even exists? Oh, yeah. He says, I'm pretty sure it does.

And so life keeps going on. He had a few hiccups. He had some health problems.

He had to call, you know, get some money wired back. But all his extra money he was sending across the ocean to invest in Microsoft stock. And see, the reason that he lived this way was because Bill Gates had sat down with Frank before his trip to Russia.

And he says, listen, Frank, I need to tell you, when you're in Russia, don't make investments in Russia. You see, the Russian economy is pretty fragile. And at any moment there could be another revolution which would put the power back into the hands of the communists, and the foreigners would be out of luck, and probably most of the native people would also be out of luck.

All the private property would go into the hands of the communists. And so Frank put that into practice, and he did not make investments. Sometimes his friends would come to him, the same ones that told him you could dine at these fancy restaurants.

They said, hey, there's some property over here on such and such a street, and you could be buying some of these properties up. You could be making some amazing investments here in Russia. But Frank says, no, I'm not here to accumulate money here in Russia.

I've got a different goal. I'm living for a different country. And they just shake their heads.

They can't understand this guy, Frank. But finally, the prediction that Bill Gates had made came true. And there was a revolution.

And Russia was taken over by the communists. And all this private property got swept up, and the foreigners were pushed out. And Frank was able to escape out of that country with nothing but the shirt on his back, left everything else behind, which wasn't that much.

But whatever he had, it was left behind. Got on an airplane, flying across the Atlantic to New York City. As he's on that airplane thinking about the last ten years he's lived in Russia, he starts to wonder, what's life going to be like when I land back on American soil? Am I going to be poverty stricken, looking for work, trying to find some way to make ends meet? What's happened to all that money I've been sending over there? Is it really worth anything at all? And he's just not quite sure what to expect.

As the plane finally lands, and he walks out through security. But he gets past security in that airport. And he hears a big crowd of people with signs.

There's newspaper reporters. There's television people. They all want to interview this guy because he's one of the richest men in America.

Frank is. Because of his investment strategy when he was living over there in Russia. And everybody's just amazed at him.

People read stories about him in the newspaper. They're amazed at how good of an investor he has been. They're amazed at what he has done with the opportunities that he has.

And some of them are kind of envious of him. Some of them wish they could be like him. And some of them say, I'm going to try to be like him myself.

But there's no doubt anybody has in their mind Frank was a very wise investor. Now, you probably understand the parallels there. Frank was living in a foreign country.

He was investing in his home country. We, as Christians, if you're a Christian here this morning, we are living in a foreign country. We're not home yet.

But Jesus has given us the opportunity to invest in a country where our wealth will not be taken from us. And he says, do what you can to store up treasures over there. And I want to wish you God's blessing.

You know, this has been a privilege to preach this, especially on a weekend where earlier this week, a bunch of you got together to tag bags for poor people over in Romania. And then yesterday, a bunch more of you got together to fill those bags with food for poor people over in the Ukraine. And then this afternoon, I guess some of you are going down to the, some of us, you, whatever, are going down to hand out food to homeless people in Eugene.

And I don't know that that was necessarily coincidence. You think maybe God had a hand in this. These things are storing up treasure in heaven.

If we do it in the name of Jesus, we do it by his principles, giving to needy people in this world is a privilege. And it's, the money's not gone, Jesus says. He says that you're storing up treasure in heaven, and it's still yours.

In the same way that Frank's stock over there in Microsoft in America, it was still his. Jesus said, treasure in heaven is still yours. So let's do it.

Let's follow Jesus. Let's study his principles. Let's do what he says.

He intended it for good news, not bad news. He intended it to be something that should make us rejoice that we can actually be part of this. And so I hope you all are rejoicing with me this morning.

Let's bow our heads for prayer. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus, and we want to thank you for the privilege of rejoicing that you have given us, that we can, as your members of your kingdom, store up treasures in a place where moth and rust and thieves and stock market crashes don't happen. And we can keep it forever.

Help us to be diligent about this. Help us to be excited about this, inspired by this. Help us to do it according to your principles.

Help us to get answers, Lord, as we seek for answers about how to practically put these things into shoe leather. I pray that you would guide us and just help us get the right answers, Lord, when it comes to a doctrinal question like this. Is the answer yes? Is the answer no? Lord, which is it? I pray that you would answer that for us, and you would just make it clear.

You would guide us through our lives as we work to build your kingdom here on this earth. Thank you, Lord, for all the blessings you've given us. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.