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Going Going Gone #1 – The Right Perspective

Sermon Transcript

Join us as we dive into the baseball themed Going Going Gone series, taking a look at our past, how God has brought us to where we are today, and where he is taking us into the future. As we celebrate our 50th anniversary as a church we are trusting Him to pay off the remainder of our loan and expand our parking lot to match our church capacity. It’s an exciting time and we’re looking forward to all God has in store.

Be a part of the Going Going Gone campaign at: burkecommunity.com/pledge

For the next three Sundays, we will tap into a new capital campaign program called Going Going Gone!  You probably realized something would be potentially different about worship when you entered the building today, especially as you encountered the baseball diamond laid out perfectly on the floor. The Cracker Jacks, T-shirts, and various baseballs that were handed out at the beginning of the service alerted you to the fact that this service was going to be quite different from others. Various staff wearing baseball hats commemorating our 50 years of ministry this year and my preaching in a baseball-numbered jersey also represented big clues that this sermon is certainly not about First Samuel. No, it’s about baseball.

Why? For starters, I love baseball. I grew up playing the game and training constantly in the off-season. Some of my best memories and life lessons are tied to this great game. I still get excited when I walk by the freshly cut grass on the field at Lake Braddock High School. And who doesn’t like the sound of the bat hitting the ball as players practice in the batting cage?

Additionally, the baseball theme served us well when we launched our extensive capital campaign program to build this new worship center. Starting in 2014, my sermon series Following God’s Lead, set the tone for our building expansion program.

This four-part series was followed by a ten-part challenge in 2015 to Get In The Game. In these studies, I challenged you to become an ardent disciple of Christ and laid out what discipleship means. I closed by demonstrating how growing, maturing disciples know what it means to get in the game of giving to advance Christ’s gospel and kingdom.

A short three-part series called Batter Up followed in 2016. During this short chalk talk, I taught our team how great spiritual hitters can hit pitches called sacrificial and spontaneous giving.

In 2017, I concluded the capital campaign drive with a two-part study called Heading For Home. The first sermon focused on how Moses, Israel’s first coach as a team, challenged the team to give toward the construction of the Tabernacle, and they did. The people gave so magnanimously that Moses had to tell them to stop (Ex. 35-36). It’s a jaw-dropping and motivational story. The second sermon challenged our players to David, Israel’s coach in the Old Testament, planned for the future building of the massive temple in his son Solomon’s lifetime by strategically and sacrificially storing the various materials that would be needed for the construction project (1 Chron. 28-29).

When the capital campaigns to raise $9 million as a down payment on this 17.9 million dollar building project concluded, our players rose to the occasion. They hit the ball well by generously giving $14 million. Wow. What a team. Amazingly, many of our players continue to drive the financial ball out of the infield by giving us additional monies toward our remaining loan. As it stands now, our thirty-year loan that started in 2020 when we moved into our new facilities is set to be paid off at our current rate of payments by 2028! Unbelievable. Go team.

With all this in mind, it’s only logical for me, as your Coach, to challenge you with a new giving program called Going, Going, Gone! Let me enlighten you if you don’t know anything about this baseball phrase. In 1929, the Cincinnati Reds announcer, Harry Hartman, coined the term to denote a hitter driving a baseball out of the stadium. Baseball historians believe he borrowed the term from auction houses in the 1800s, which he used to represent the final sale of an item. After three years in the Army, Mel Allen, the New York Yankees announcer from 1940 through 1964, really popularized the phrase when he used it to describe batters hitting balls into the outer reaches of Yankee Stadium. As spiritual baseball players, it is, therefore, fitting for us to embrace and use this fantastic term to describe the goal of our new capital campaign program.

What is our giving goal? It is two-fold. First, we seek to eliminate our remaining construction debt of $2.25 million. Second, we aim to raise $2.25 million to position us to expand our parking lot from 524 stalls to 706 by adding 182 more.

What will paying off our loan before 2028 do for our team? It will position us to do even more for our team owner’s kingdom. Our owner, of course, is the Lord Jesus . . . in case you were wondering. With this debt gone, we can apply all our monies to the ministry of touching lives for time and eternity here and abroad. I’ll give you more concrete ideas as we work through this series.

What will expanding our parking lot mean? It will mean your faith will not be tested when you attempt to find a place to park on a Sunday morning. That’s a touch of humor for the more serious players among us. It means that visitors will no longer drive into our parking lot, discover they can’t park, and then drive out—perhaps never to return. The Elder Council has already directed $300,000 toward the administrative costs of getting our much-needed project before the Special Permit Amendment team with Fairfax County. Expect this application to clear this summer, thereby positioning us to get rolling.

Hopefully, now you see the importance of this new campaign slogan. Going, Going, Gone! It will set us up for more spiritual wins and impact on the field called life, and it will provide easier parking for all the new folks who come or will come to call this place their spiritual team.

How will we raise these additional monies above and beyond our current budget for 2025? Good question. To answer this query, I propose that over the next three weeks to ask and answer another question:

How Do You Hit A Financial Home Run With Your Giving To God?

Put differently, how do you, as a spiritual hitter, drive the financial ball not just into the outfield for a single, double, or triple but entirely out of the park? The multiple answers are found in what I call hitting the long ball tips. Physical baseball players who desire to hit more home runs must pay strict attention to various concepts to improve their hitting prowess.

  • Increased bat speed is critical. The harder you hit a ball, the farther it will fly. So, work on your forearms, core, and leg muscles.
  • Attempt to hit the ball to put backspin on it because this causes it to stay aloft longer and fly further.
  • As you lean slightly over the plate, tip your bat forward to increase bat speed.
  • Realize that most home runs are hit with the bat being between 20 to 40 degrees.
  • Swing earlier to get more of your power to explode on the head of the bat when it connects with the ball. Translated, hit the baseball out front. Sure, this will cause you to hit the ball to either the left or right field fence, depending on where you are in the box, but those fences are closer than center field.
  • Stay intensely focused on the pitcher and the approaching ball. Keep your head down and your eyes on the ball.
  • Don’t jump on the first pitch you see. Wait for your pitch.
  • Work on hitting curveballs well because it is easier, based on the pitch’s spin, to get lift so you can drive it out of the stadium. Remember, if the pitch hangs, you bang it. Remember, the curveball is the only pitch that moves upward after the release, leaving you with red seams running parallel from 10 to 4 o’clock like railroad ties. When you see this, please keep your hands back and then explode all over it.
  • In the on-deck circle, warm up with a lighter bat. Scientific studies show that warming up with a heavier bat decreases bat speed.
  • Build up your rotational core strength by working with a heavy medicine ball.

Hitters who practice these tips will hit more home runs.

Spiritual hitters are no different. Those who understand and apply biblical hitting tips become the spiritual Babe Ruths, Hank Aarons, Ken Griffey Juniors, Barry Bonds, and Willie Mays on God’s team. What power-hitting principles do they understand and apply? Today, we will consider one.

Long Ball Tip #1: Get The Right Perspective (Matt. 6:19-24)

Perspective changes everything.

Growing up, I knew how to hit for base hits. It wasn’t, however, until I had Lefty (Alvin) Martin as a coach in 1975 that I gained a home run perspective and confidence. Lefty was a rippling, cut body of Afro-American muscle. His career with the Angels Triple-A team was cut short when he became a U.S. Green Beret in the Vietnam War.

When he returned to the States, he didn’t return to playing baseball; on the contrary, he poured his life into teaching young men how to play ball and how to hit with prowess. He died right before I moved here from complications with diabetes. I remember the solemn night I called him to tell him thank you for how much his life had impacted mine both on and off the field. He closed our conversation by saying, “Marty, I’ve suffered for a long time, and now I am prepared to go and be with our Lord.” What a man. What a coach.

In one game, as I warmed up in the on-deck circle, Lefty stepped out of the dugout, walked up to me, and said, “Hey, man, I want you to jump on the first pitch, which is usually a fastball from this guy, and drive it over the right field fence.” I replied to this hulk of a man, “Coach, I’m not a home run hitter.” Hitting me on the shoulders, he said confidently, “I know you can do it, so do it. Jump on the first pitch.” I did, and the ball soared over the rightfield fence. What had Lefty done for me? He gave me a new perspective on myself as a long-ball hitter. I listened and was rewarded for my efforts.

Spiritually, the same is true. When you possess a biblical perspective of giving, you will, by definition, hit more homers for the Lord. One of the most significant passages about this comes directly from our team owner’s first chalk talk with His team in Matthew 6:19-24. We call it the Sermon on the Mount, but we could also call it the Sermon on the Mound for thematic purposes. Here is what Jesus taught His team:

19 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 “The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23 “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matt. 6).

Let’s learn from our Team Owner’s teaching here about the proper perspective concerning giving to support His kingdom work.

First, we know the Lord is talking about money here because, in the context, he just finished speaking about giving financial assistance to the poor (Matt. 6:1-4). The treasures He speaks about here are, then, first and foremost, our finances.

Second, according to Jesus, life has two treasuries: earthly and heavenly. One is physical, and the other is spiritual. One is temporal, and the other is eternal. One involves earthly wealth and the other concerns heavenly wealth.

Third, Christ commands us not to overly focus on acquiring earthly treasures but on heavenly ones. He does not besmirch or downplay a person who saves and invests his money well in this life so he can prepare for future needs. Joseph certainly was a savvy investor as he saw a massive famine looming (Gen. 41:26ff ), and Proverbs 3, verses 6 through 8, speaks about how intelligent ants are at gathering and storing food for the future. This wisdom is, then, applied to how a wise person should approach life. Having a sound, well-thought-out, and diversified portfolio is what wise, mature, spiritually growing investors do.

What the Lord is against is hoarding so much of earth that there is no way you could possibly use all you’ve amassed in this life. His words are first negative. The command in Greek forbids an action already in progress (“no,” followed by the present tense verb, “to store up”). According to the Greek grammarians Dana & Mantey, “The present tense is properly used for expressing continued action. A prohibition in the present imperative demands that action then in progress be stopped,”(A Manual Grammar: 301:2). Ostensibly, this means the disciples were guilty of doing the very thing Jesus forbid: the amassing of worldly goods because of their supposed worth at the expense of amassing spiritual goods. In a word, the disciples were worldly. They loved the things of the world more than the Lord of the world.

He delivered this opening teaching by couching it in a robust command and employing a definite play on words. Rhetorically, this is also called epibole,[1] or the overlaid repetition of words designed to grab attention to drive home a point.

To properly understand and grasp Christ’s meaning, you have to dig into the lexical meaning of the word “treasure.”

According to Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of The New Testament And Other Early Christian Literature, “treasure” has two lexical connotations:  (1) the place where something is stored, Matthew 13:52, like a treasure chest, or (2) that which is stored up, denoting something valuable like treasure, Matthew 13:44, (BAG: 361). MacArthur further opens the meaning of this word with this statement:

The Greek word is thesaurizete, from which we get the word thesaurus—a treasury of words. But thesaurizete is a play on words that  means ‘treasure not up treasure.’ In other words, don’t stockpile. The idea of the word treasure is to stash something somewhere. The peculiar quality of this Greek word literally conveys the idea of placing something horizontally [Like stacking coins.] The Lord is not referring to that which we use to live every day, but that which we just pile up. It is not our necessities (i.e., meeting the needs of our own life, family, the poor, the Lord; for setting aside money for the future, or for making wise investments in order to be better stewards of God’s money in the days to come). It is not active but stockpiled luxury we amass for our own selves and beyond what we can possible use. The implication is that there is an abundance too numerous to use, so it is just piled up  (Mastering Materialism Study Notes: 10).

Does this mean Jesus is against life insurance policies, investment portfolios, bank accounts, and the like? By no means, as I have said. Several lines of biblical evidence from both testaments demonstrate God is for sound mind investing and planning:

  • Many parables clearly teach wise investment strategies (Matthew 25; Luke 19).
  • Abraham, a wealthy man, was called a friend of God (2 Chronicles 20:7).
  • After Job repented, God gave him all of his wealth back and then some (Job 42:12ff).
  • Numerous Proverbs we studied in our series buttress God’s desire for us to be good financial stewards of what He has entrusted to us (Proverbs 6:6-8; 14:23; 24:3-4).

What Jesus opposes is a greedy, covetous attitude toward our treasures, which drives us to get more and more of whatever our treasure may be. Dr. Thomas Constable of Dallas Theological Seminary echoes this conclusion:

In view of the imminence of the kingdom, Jesus’ disciples should “stop laying up treasures on earth.” Jesus called for a break with their former practice. Money is not intrinsically evil. The wise person works hard and makes financial provision for lean times (Prov. 6:6-8). Believers have a responsibility to provide for their needy relatives (1 Tim. 5:8). We can enjoy what God has given us (1 Tim. 4:3-4; 6:17). What Jesus forbade here was selfishness. Misers hoard more than they need (James 5:2-3). Materialists always want more. It is the love of money that is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Tim. 6:10) (Notes On Matthew: 13, 339-340).

Therefore, it is as if Jesus is saying, “Stop selfishly stockpiling worldly treasures you will never use and which you never plan on using to alleviate the needs God puts in front of you.”

Stockpiling money is not a reasonable investment strategy because one day, it will be worthless, especially in light of eternity. Pricey cars will develop rust. Designer clothes are prone to being eaten by bugs. That dream home will not be so dreamy as you have to actually fix it as it eventually breaks down. The money (and things) you have now will be worthless in light of eternity. It will be like the Deutsch Marks my Uncle Ray gave me when he flew for Strategic Air Command during the Vietnam War. In fact, I have a box of bills and coins he gave me in the 1960s from European countries he flew through for the Air Force. Those countries all now use the Euro. All the old currencies are simply worthless. When the Lord returns in glory or when He calls you home before His return, at that point, your American dollars will be as valuable as my Deutsch Marks. Enjoy them now, but in the future, they will be pretty worthless.

It is far wiser to use those earthly monies to assist you in storing up heavenly investments that will never fade in time and eternity. It is all about perspective. You can either use your money to invest in the present and the temporal or as an investment in the future and the eternal. Look at it this way: every day you walk this earth as a saint is another day to take care of your needs and increase your heavenly portfolio because you used those earthly funds to increase spiritual purposes and goals. What are you doing with your money? Are they primarily focused on earthly or heavenly concerns? When you give to your church, you deposit in your heavenly treasury. When you give to alleviate the needs of others, you are making additional deposits in your heavenly treasury. When you give to Christian non-profit organizations to meet the needs of people, you are, again, making a smart investment in the heavenly treasure that the Lord has promised to give you. I wonder what your heavenly investment portfolio looks like.

Fourth, where you find your treasure is where you find your heart. I know where my heart is if I store money for myself and give meager amounts to advance God’s purposes. It’s tied up with the concerns and love of this old, temporary earth. Talk about an inferior investment strategy. On the other hand, if I wisely manage my monies while using them in a sacrificial and magnanimous fashion as opportunities arise to advance Christ’s purposes, then my heart is really in heaven and is focused on heavenly, eternal concerns. So, where is your heart?

Fifth, just as there are two treasuries in life we, as saints, must think about, there are two eyes: good and bad. Non-believers have bad vision because they are focused on what they see in this life: the cars, the homes, the planes, the designer purses, the designer clothes, the lucrative contracts, and so forth. They think that what they see is what matters, which is why this is all they talk about on Instagram, Facebook, and People Magazine, to name a few. They think that this life is all there is, so they had better get all they can so they can enjoy it to the fullest. How foolish. Being darkened by sin, their eyes keep them from seeing the eternal with good spiritual eyes.

Good eyesight, or wise eyesight, sees beyond this life to the life to come. Like Abraham (Heb. 11:13-16), it looks upward and forward to what lies ahead for those who walk with God, love Him, and invest in things that matter to Him. Good eyesight tells the believer that we are only living in the preface of the book of our lives. The rest of the book will be seen and understood as it unfolds in eternity.

A widow I knew in my first church came in to speak with me one day about our giving program before she left for vacation. I had a woodworker in our church construct two large wooden oak trees that we could stand up on a table in the sanctuary. After we moved into the grocery store we called church, we owed $25,000 on our loan, so our ladies cut out acorns from Post-it notes and placed different financial values on them, totaling our loan pay-off amount. We had no sooner finished the time-consuming project than this humble widow walked into my office holding all of the acorns. When I shockingly asked her what she was doing, she replied, “Well, Pastor, before I left for vacation, I wanted to let you know I’m ready to pay for all these acorns. And when I return from my trip, I will give more to the church.” I wonder. How was her eyesight? I’m sure it couldn’t have been greater, and I’m equally sure she has heavenly treasure awaiting her, which we cannot even begin to understand with finite minds.

What about you? Healthy spiritual eyesight sees God’s perspective toward monies entrusted to us. They are to be invested in the eternal, not the temporal. Can I ask you a personal question? Does your eyesight cause you to live differently?

Sixth, just as there are two treasuries and two forms of eyesight where monies are concerned, there are also two masters: God and money. True, you, as a believer, have God and money. The question is whether God has your heart or is it money. Talk about a worthy perspective to understand and play by as a spiritual hitter. If the Lord is the Lord of my monies, then how I invest and give those monies for His purposes will be reflected in how I swing away at eternal opportunities. If Mammon, or Money, is my God, then it will be readily seen in how tight-fisted I hold onto what I have, how I keep it for myself, and how little I think of investing it kingdom causes. So, what about it? Does how you use the monies entrusted to you demonstrate that the Lord is your Lord?

Saints who know how to hit the long ball out of the park of life have a unique perspective as they hit. They live on earth to give sacrificially to advance Christ’s kingdom, while also making heavenly deposits. They have tremendous vision because they see the importance of eternal investments over temporal ones. They know the Lord is their Lord because they generously release those monies to accomplish divine goals that will impact people both in the here and now and the hereafter.

I close by drawing your attention to one of our members and former elders who know how to hit the long ball. His name is Dave DuHadway. Listen, learn, and be motivated by this godly man.

[1]  Epibole is from epiballein (epiballein), to cast upon. The figure is so named, because the same sentence or phrase is cast upon or laid upon (like layers or courses of bricks) several successive paragraphs (Bullinger, Figures of Speech: 346). Illustrated:

A Lay not up for yourselves

B Treasure upon earth

C Where moth and rust doth corrupt

D And where thieve break through and steal

A But lay up for yourselves

B Treasures in heaven

C Where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt

D And where thieves do not break through nor steal

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