Just finished Tim Keller’s new book Counterfeit Gods:  The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters. I read this in prep for my talk on the Lord’s prayer. I know that it doesn’t have anything to do with the Lord’s prayer, but I believe the Lord’s prayer shows the idols that we have and what we hope things in our life will do and the Lord’s prayer shows the response to those things and that God is the only hope to answer those longings.

According to Keller, “idolatry is the most common sin committed today.” The funny thing is that most everyone would say they don’t have a problem with idolatry. I’ve never met with someone who confessed to having an idol problem. It is so common that we don’t see it.

An idol is “anything that we look to for things that only God can give.” The reality is that idols are often not bad things. Some of them are, but by and large they are good things that we make into ultimate things. Keller said, “Idolatry is always the the reason we ever do anything wrong.”

Idols can be kids, our jobs, dreams, our money, retirement, friendships, sports teams, political parties. The list goes on.

What Keller does is show what the idols of our culture are, what personal idols we have, what physical, spiritual idols we have. He then shows how they become idols, the hope and faith that we put into those things. How good, everyday things become ultimate things that we stake our whole future on and the hopelessness of that.

He ends with what to do with them. For me, this was the only area that I felt was lacking. After spending 150 pages on what idols are and identifying them, he spent less than 30 pages on what to do. I personally would have liked to have seen more in this area, the application side.

Regardless, this is a fantastic book and one worth reading, thinking and praying through and working through what your idols are and how that affects your relationship with God.

The reality of idolatry is that it is the first sin. We do not sin without the sin of idolatry, this is why, according to Martin Luther, the 10 commandments start with, “You should no other gods before me.” We have to break the first commandment to break the other 9.

Not sure what your idols are, here is a list of questions to work through to discover your idols.

• Great night tonight
• Definitely felt more on my groove tonight
• The band nailed the Weezer song “Beverly Hills”
• Love seeing all the new people who God has brought to Revolution
• Love when ask I someone how they found Revolution and they point to the person next to them
• Never gets old
• If you thought tonight rocked, just wait til next week
• It is awesome to see the Revolutionaries who are taking steps of faith in the 90 day tithing challenge
• Here are some books to check out if tonight struck a chord
• I can’t recommend enough Tim Keller’s book Counterfeit Gods, got a lot of material for my talk tonight from that book
• Tim Keller nails it on how our idols impact our past, present and future
• Not sure how to discern your idols, here is a list of questions to work through
• This quote from C.S. Lewis nails on the head how idols work into our lives
• The Lord’s prayer is so rich, there is so much there
• Tonight really could have been a 6 week series
• Pumped to hang out with some Revolutionaries tomorrow and play ultimate frisbee, if you are interested in playing, show up at Lakeside Park at 10 am tomorrow
• There is an area for kids to play on a playground, so bring the whole family
• I am blown away by how good the new Kings of Convenience and The Swell Season albums are
• I’ve gotten a lot of questions emailed to me about giving
• I did some blogs this past week answering some of the most common questions, if you missed them here are my thoughts to the questions like why should I give back to God, why people don’t give, can I give too much, and what do I do if I don’t have enough money to give back to God
•  Huge Steelers game tomorrow, first place in the AFC north is at stake
• Better not blow it
• Got to hang out with Justin Anderson this week, awesome to pick his brain about church, leadership and church planting
• We have our last pre-marital counseling on Monday, Alan & Karen’s wedding is next Sunday
• Love being a part of helping couples get started on the right foot
• I have my lead pastor coaching this week
• It is amazing to me how much I have learned and what we have changed because of it and I still have 9 months to go
• Can’t wait to see what God continues to do because of it
• I said it before, we are in the midst of seeing God do some unbelievable things at Revolution
• Guess what
• We are only getting started
• Just wait…

Tonight I talked about the idols we have in our lives. Many of us take Jesus off the throne of our lives and place something else in His place. We make something else ultimate, hoping that person or thing will fulfill all our needs and dreams.

This can be a spouse, money, kids, a job, a hobby, sports team. The thing about idols is that they are often not sinful, they are good things. But they are things that we make our god.

How do you discern your idol? Darrin Patrick has a great list that I shared tonight about discerning our idols:

• What do you worry about the most?
• What if I failed or lost would it make me not want to live?
• What do I do to cope or feel better?
• What do I think most easily about?
• What preoccupies me?
• What do I daydream about?
• What makes me feel the most self worth?
• What do I want to be known for?
• What prayer unanswered would seriously make me think about turning away from God?
• What is my hope for the future?
• What are the clear paths of disobedience in my life?

“When idolatry is mapped onto the future – when our idols are threatened – it leas to paralyzing fear and anxiety. When it is mapped onto the past – when we fail our idols – it leads to irremediable guilt. When idolatry is mapped onto the present life – when our idols are blocked or removed by circumstances – it roils us with anger and despair.” – Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods

“Most people, if they have really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we have grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job:  but something has evaded us.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

After Saturday night and the talk I gave, I got a bunch of questions on email, twitter and facebook about giving. A couple of days ago I blogged about some of the reasons people give for not giving back to God and why we should give back to God. Throughout this week, I’ve been blogging those questions and some other thoughts about giving back to God.

Here is a question I got the other day (which I have permission to share):  If I can’t tithe my money, can I tithe my time or talents instead?

Yes and no.

Tithing is part of a larger discussion of stewardship. In fact, one author makes the case that stewardship is the Christian life. Stewardship is a larger umbrella that tithing falls under.

We are all given money, possessions, talents, resources, stuff, children, jobs, etc. that we are to steward and we will be held accountable for. I will be held accountable for how I raised my kids. I have been entrusted with 3 beautiful kids and I am to raise them in a way that honors God. I am accountable for this.

In the same way I am accountable for how I steward my money, time and talents that God has given me. As a leader and communicator, I am accountable for how I steward those spiritual gifts that God has given me. Am I growing and trying to become better in those areas or am I just mailing it in not trying to get better. I am accountable for those things.

If this is a question you’ve asked or struggled with I would encourage you to check out some of the recommended resources from this series and/or come out on a Saturday night at Revolution for our series How to be Rich. You can also listen to my talk from Saturday night.

1. Tim Challies recently publised two free e-books:  Sexual Detox: A Guide for the Single Guy and Sexual Detox: A Guide for the Married Guy. After our I Want a New Marriage series and the response we got for the week I preached on porn, I can’t recommend these free books any more. Download them, read them (with your wife, if married). They are great resources.
2. Chris Brogan on How to blog almost everyday. If you are a blogger and need ways to be a better blogger/writer, this is a great list on where to find ideas. He also has a list of 100 topics to write about and 20 topics to get unstuck as a blogger.
3. John Piper on 9 ways we know the gospel of Jesus is true.

Saturday is part 2 of our series How to be Rich.

This past Saturday was a great kick-off to the series. There has been a lot of conversation and buzz surrounding the 90 day tithing challenge. If you are on the fence about this challenge, it is not too late to jump in and be a part of “testing” God in the area of finances.

This week, we’ll look at the things we put into our life that we hope and pray with give us the deepest longings of our heart and how those things often don’t do it for us. What we place in our heart as God depends on our view of God. Our view of God is the pathway to a life of freedom or a life of bondage.

Don’t be late this week, we’ll be kicking off the night with a bang!

In his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller talks about the idea that all of us are writing a story with our lives and that families write a story as a family. It got me to think about the story I am writing with Katie and the kids.

How do you know what story you are writing? Look at your bank account and calendar. What you spend your time doing is what you find important and what you find important is the story you are writing with your life. We can say that we find something valuable and important, but the truth, if we don’t put our time and money into that, it isn’t important.

I will hear people say, “I wanted to be at church” or “I want to give back to God” or “I wanted to go and serve” but and then they lay out why it didn’t happen. Here is what I know about our schedules. We all put into our schedules what is important. Whether that is work, our kids games, watching our favorite football team, date night with our spouse. We all do what matters to us. The question we have to ask is, “Am I spending my time doing the right stuff? Am I spending my money on what matters?”

As a dad, I’m starting to think about the story my family is writing. What will my kids look back on and remember? 20 years from now, what will Ava, Gavin and Ashton say was important to me, to us as a family? Will they say they were important? Will they say my job was more important than they were?

What about our money? Will they say we were generous or were we a greedy family? Did we have the attitude of servants or did we look for ways to take advantage of people?

What happens as kids grow, they know what story we are living (usually before we do) and they write that story with us. The story we write as a family, affects the story they write as kids and into adulthood.

So right now, what story are you writing? What story are you writing as a family?

I hope that when I’m gone my kids say the story I wrote said this:

• Serving God as a family, not my job
• Katie was more important than everything but God
• I was passionate about being a follower of Jesus
• That they mattered more than everything (3rd to Katie and God)
• My job came 4th
• That they would love God and his bride and still serve Him
• They would be more generous than I ever was

After Saturday night and the talk I gave, I got a bunch of questions on email, twitter and facebook about giving. A couple of days ago I blogged about some of the reasons people give for not giving back to God and why we should give back to God. Throughout this week, I’ve been blogging those questions and some other thoughts about giving back to God.

Here is a question I got (that I have permission to share):  I would like to give, but I can’t. We don’t have the money. At the end of the month, there is more month than money and so there is nothing left to give back to God. There is no room in the budget for it.

Now, this question does not say this, but underneath this question reveals where God sits on the priority list. He is not first. He is not even in the top 5. He is at the end. Viewing giving through this lens makes giving into giving God a tip at the end of the month because He “helped” them get through the month with enough money. Completely misses the point.

Giving is something that happens first. When creating a budget, giving back to God is the first thing on the budget. If it isn’t, it will not get the place that God commands for it to get. When you get paid, it is the first thing you do with your paycheck.

Our money does not betray our values. We can say over and over how much we value God, but what we do with our money shows that we often value eating out, buying stuff more than we value God.

The reason I get so passionate about this is because I used to say this all the time. It wasn’t until I began to understand the joy of giving back to God and the freedom and peace that comes with it that I began to fully follow Jesus. I said it Saturday night, it is impossible become a fully devoted follower of Jesus without honoring God with our finances.

Giving back to God is proportional. God does not give us a standard amount that everyone gives. He doesn’t say, “Every pay period you have to give $100.” He says, “Bring the tithe (10%).” So what is that for you? It is different for everyone. That is the floor we are told to start from, now the goal or finish line, but the starting line.

For us, after we put our tithe first in the budget, it meant that some things needed to get out of our budget so we could give back to God. It is a sacrifice and that is part of giving. But, it is a good thing. It all boils down to what you want to do with the money God has entrusted to you. That is how my view of money changed. If I have been entrusted by God with this money and it is his money, instead of asking “how much should I give back to Him?” Maybe we should ask questions like, “How much should I keep” and “Will buying this or doing that honor God?” It changes how you view things and for many of us, that is the biggest problem is our view of money.

If this is a question you’ve asked or struggled with I would encourage you to check out some of the recommended resources from this series and/or come out on a Saturday night at Revolution for our series How to be Rich. You can also listen to my talk from Saturday night.

After Saturday night and the talk I gave, I got a bunch of questions on email, twitter and facebook about giving. A couple of days ago I blogged about some of the reasons people give for not giving back to God and why we should give back to God. Throughout this week, I’ve been blogging those questions and some other thoughts about giving back to God.

Here is a question I got (that I have permission to share):  I understand that 10% is the full tithe and that is the starting point, but should I give more than that?

One of the things I pointed out in another question is that giving is always proportional and sacrificial.

Now, in the New Testament, when giving is talked about, especially in 2 Corinthians 8 – 9, not only is proportion brought out, but also sacrificial. Giving should cost us something, it should hurt.

This means, for some of us, 10% is a huge sacrifice. For others, 10% is not a sacrifice. For some, for tithing to be a sacrifice, it might be 20% or higher. I know people who tithe 80 or 90% of what they make.

I think what is important to keep in mind is that we have been entrusted with what we have for a reason. It is not an accident why we make what we make or why we have what we have, and we are accountable for how we use those things.

The question I ask when this is brought up is, “Are you sacrificing?”

If this is a question you’ve asked or struggled with I would encourage you to check out some of the recommended resources from this series and/or come out on a Saturday night at Revolution for our series How to be Rich. You can also listen to my talk from Saturday night.

After Saturday night and the talk I gave, I got a bunch of questions on email, twitter and facebook about giving. A couple of days ago I blogged about some of the reasons people give for not giving back to God. Over the next few days I’m going to share some of the questions I got, but before we do that, I wanted to give some perspective on why we should give back to God as followers of Jesus.

That’s an important distinction to make. When the Bible speaks of giving, it is speaking to those who are followers of God. It is not some all encompassing cultural thing. This doesn’t mean that if you aren’t a follower of Jesus you can’t be generous, on the contrary. It means, that if you are a follower of Jesus, God has a specific calling and expectation for you.

The other thing to point is, if you want what God calls wants and if you want the blessings and rewards that He promises, then we need to do what he says.

First, we are told to. We are told to be generous with our stuff and honor God with our finances. We are told in Malachi 3 “to bring the full tithe into the storehouse.” The word tithe literally means “a tenth.” This means you can’t tithe 4% to God, you can’t tithe your time or talents (more on that in a second). You either tithe or you don’t. The storehouse was the temple. Now, I do not believe that the church today is a direct equivalent to the storehouse, but it is the closest comparison we have.

Second, Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 6 that what we value is where we put our money. Often times, this is where our excuses end. We can say that we value God, but if we don’t honor him with our finances, it ends up being wishful thinking. Tithing is a heart/faith issue. When we don’t give back to God, we show that we don’t trust God to do what He says He will do and provide for us and meet our needs.

It is not an accident that in Matthew 6, after talking about giving, how we view God and money, treasure and eternity, Jesus ends Matthew 6 by saying, “We shouldn’t worry about our needs being met.” Now, how can he say that? Because if we put our faith fully in God, put all of our chips in and say, “God I’m following you and doing what you told me to do” shouldn’t we then expect God to do what He said He will do? Jesus would say “Yes.”

Giving back to God is part of our worship. It is not something we do just to support the church we are a part of (althought that is part of it), it is something we do as part of our worship. It is like prayer, singing songs and reading our Bible. It shows our faith, it is part of our relationship with God. It is not some hollow practice that is void of a connection to God, that is one of the best parts. Each week when we give back to God, we are once again telling God, “I am still in this. You are God, I am not and that is a good thing.”

What about blessings and rewards? This is dangerous and often misunderstood or used for harm. Blessings and rewards (specifically talked about in Malachi 3 and Matthew 6) do not mean that if we give God $100 he will give us $1000. Sometimes, and I have seen this in my life. When Katie and I gave back to God and a bill came up or something happened God provided the means to pay that.

There has also been times when that has not happened. What’s the blessing there? Because God has been faithful in other times, I trust Him for not coming through the way I want Him to. I know there is a reason and it brings me a lot of peace to know He is in control.

While this is not a complete list, by any stretch, just a small sampling. I would encourage you to check out some of the recommended resources from this series and/or come out on a Saturday night at Revolution for our series How to be Rich. You can also listen to my talk from Saturday night.

The rest this week I’ll be sharing some of the questions I’ve gotten through facebook, twitter and email, so stay tuned.

“We tend to think of sin as we see it in rags and in the gutters of life. We look at a drunkard, poor fellow, and we say, there is sin. But that is not the essence of sin. To have a real picture and a true understanding of sin, you must look at some great saint, some unusually devout and devoted man, look at him there on his knees in the very presence of God. Even there self is intruding itself, and the temptation is for him to think about himself, to think pleasantly and pleasurably about himself and to really be worshiping himself rather than God. That, not the other, is the true picture of sin. The other is sin, of course, but there you do not see it at its acme, you do not see it in its essence.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Saturday I spoke on tithing, giving and generosity. It is topic that some people don’t like to hear about and even more pastors don’t like to preach on it.

For me, giving is a spiritual gift as much as leadership is and we need to develop that in our churches and people the same way we develop the gift of leadership and evangelism. It is also a spiritual practice like reading your Bible and praying, which we encourage wholeheartedly in our churches.

One thing I have learned about preaching on money is the only people who get upset are Christians who don’t give back to God. Mark it down pastors, if you preach on money, the stingy Christians will be the only people mad. Unchurched people want to know what God says about money, they want education on it. Christians who give don’t get mad. The people who get mad are the Christians who feel convicted about the fact that money is their god and not Jesus.

I used to have reasons excuses about why I didn’t give. And used every one in the book.

About a year ago, I saw a list of reason people give for not tithing on Tim Stevens blog and thought they were right on. Here are the reasons and some of my thoughts:

• “I’m on a fixed income” or “I’m in college” and can’t tithe right now. Often this is followed with “when I make more I’ll tithe.” No you won’t. If you don’t now, more money won’t make you. You will just spend that extra money on something else. Tithing isn’t a money issue, it is a faith, trust issue. If you don’t trust God when you make $20,000 a year, what makes you think you will trust Him when you make $200,000 a year?
• “I live on a limited income.” Kind of like the first. Again, giving is proportional. The problem for many of us is we don’t know how to live within our means and be content.
• “All this church talks about is money.” Do you know who says this? Christians who don’t give. Why? Because it is Christians who are called to give. Non-Christians aren’t called to give. You will never hear a person who tithes say this. People who say this are the ones who do not have God on the throne of their lives, they have money there and they don’t like to be reminded of that. They have an idol issue.
• “If I won the lottery, I would tithe the winnings.” This sounds spiritual and is also the biggest lie. You don’t tithe now, but if you won $10 million dollars you would find it in your heart to give back to God $1 million dollars. Right.
• “We’ve made bad financial decisions and are in debt. When we get out of debt we’ll start tithing.” I understand this, this is where we are. But the Bible is clear that God blesses us when we give back to Him. Do you want God to bless you while you are getting out of debt? Um, yes. So give back to God, downsize, get on a budget, take a class, sell some stuff. Get out of debt, but this is not a reason not to give.
• “I don’t tithe because I don’t trust the leaders here.” Okay, then find a new church. Seriously. Find a church that you trust the leaders, trust where the money is going, go there and give to that church. If you don’t trust the leaders, like the vision of a church, why are you there?

I’m praying for the families in Revolution as many are already honoring God with their finances and even more have stepped up to honor Him during the 90 day tithing challenge.

• Hard night tonight
• Don’t know why but I never really got going tonight
• Hate when that happens
• Yet, had a ton of conversations with people about my talk tonight
• Amazing how God uses us even when we feel like it didn’t go well
• Love being able to pray with people as they consider taking God at His word and start giving back to Him
• Love the faith that is just waiting to come out
• Got a lot of questions about why we should tithe, what to do if you are in debt and can’t afford to tithe
• I’ll blog some thoughts to those this week
• It was awesome looking at the communication cards and seeing the names of those who are doing the tithing challenge
• Really excited to see what God does through this and how He grows Revolutionaries in their faith
• And now I’m waiting for all the blog haters to send me emails and tell me how tithing is not biblical, on and on
• What’s funny, there are websites that try to prove how tithing is unbiblical, and all the ones I have seen have onling giving buttons
• I’ll let you figure that one out
• In case you missed them, here are the top posts from October
• If you want some more resources or information on what the Bible has to say about money, giving, riches and how they impact our faith journey and our eternity, check these out
• I’m really ready for Katie and the kids to come home
• Only 4 more days
• The hous is way too quiet
• Took our kids to the dentist this week, it went well
• Amazed at how much cooler it is to go to the dentist now than it was when I was a kid
• I’m amazed at how many meetings I can fit into my week
• It seems like my schedule goes in bunches where it is full one week and then another week there is nothing
• Why can’t it even out
• Having coffee this week with Justin Anderson up in Phoenix, really excited to get some of his wisdom about leadership
• Huge Steelers game this week
• Can’t believe that we are having to keep pace with the Bungles
• Ridiculous
• Got an elder team meeting this week
• Love being able to meet with those and pray and think through how Revolution is led
• We have the best leaders any church could ask for
• Revolution is going to be part of a project to learn how churches can use social media to connect people and create community
• Paul and I have a meeting about that this week, really excited about what that can bring to Revolution
• Have my lead pastor coaching network this week
• So much happening
• Got a huge day of watching football planned tomorrow, with a run thrown in
• A good way to spend a Sunday
• Heading to bed