CTK Raleigh Sermons

CTK Raleigh Sermons is a ministry of Christ the King Presbyterian Church located in Raleigh, North Carolina. CTK is a community rooted in the depth of the gospel, refined by hard conversations, fueled by meaningful relationships, and committed to redemptive work in Raleigh.

We're in the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book in the Old Testament, and we're preaching through it. We're going to read God's word aloud together—it's a longer passage, but you've had an extra hour of sleep today, so y'all can do this.

If you'll find that in your bulletin or on the screen behind me, we're going to read this passage from Deuteronomy chapters fourteen and fifteen. Would you join your voices with mine?

Be sure to set aside a tenth that all your fields produce each year. Eat the tenth of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God, at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the Lord your God and cannot carry your tithe because the place where the Lord will choose to put his name is so far away, then exchange your tithe for silver and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose. Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine, or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice.

And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own. At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns so that the Levites who have no allotment or inheritance of their own and the foreigners, the fatherless, and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

At the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts. This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people because the Lord's time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you.

However, there need be no poor people among you. For in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.

If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard or tight fisted toward them. Rather, be open handed and freely lend them whatever they need. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: "The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near," so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. Then they may appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. Give generously to them. Do not give with a grudging heart. Then because of this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be open handed toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Very good. You know, it was several years ago now that there's this famous line from the movie Jerry Maguire, where Cuba Gooding Jr. comes out and shouts, "Show me the money." He's yelling at Tom Cruise, who's his agent: "Look, if you really love me, prove it—show me the money."

Now it's funny because Cuba Gooding Jr. is running around in a towel yelling this into the phone. But it also hits because we live in a society where value is measured by money. That's why it hits with us. It's like, yeah, I get that. Show me the money.

But here's the twist on that this morning: When God, in his word, says, "Show me the money," he's not talking about your bank account. He's talking about your insides—your motivations, your attitude, your heart.

The Book of Deuteronomy

This book of Deuteronomy that we're working through, I know it's kind of an odd book. It's probably nobody's favorite book. But it's this book that imagines here's the people of God. They're on the edge of the promised land that God has invited them to come and inhabit.

Deuteronomy imagines this really unique picture because it's a picture of Eden recreated. Now Eden is that garden we read about in the first chapters of the Bible where Adam and Eve lived with God. They walked with God as a person walks with their friend. And what's being pictured for us in the book of Deuteronomy is a people who walk with God like that, who live with God in the middle of their village, in the middle of the town, in the middle of their country, God in the middle of everything.

And it shows therefore what it looks like for a people who live like that, who have been made righteous by God and then show their righteousness to the world. They have a completely rewired way of doing everything when God is in the middle.

The True Focus of Deuteronomy 14-15

This passage really isn't about money. Deuteronomy 14 and 15, we read all this stuff about how you loan and how you care and where you tithe. It's really not about your money at all. It's really about your righteousness. It's like God is saying, like Cuba Gooding Jr., he's saying, "Show me your righteousness." What does it look like when I'm in the middle of your life? What would your life look like with regard to how you treat other people and how you view what you have?

You know, it's been the history of the church throughout centuries that this is the way the church actually handled its money. In the book of Acts, chapter four, I'll put this up on the screen behind us:

They, the early church, handled their money in such a way that there were no needy people among them. From time to time, those who own land or houses sold them, and they brought the money from the sales. They put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anybody who had need. — Acts 4

It's like in the book of Acts, "Show me your righteousness." They did. They did.

A couple other stories. In 125 AD, this guy named Aristides wrote a letter to the emperor Hadrian, the emperor over the whole Roman Empire. And the emperor Hadrian was like, "Why are these Christians so successful? Why are people becoming Christians so much?" And Aristides writes this letter to him, and it says:

The Christians are distinguished from other men, neither by country or language or customs which they observe. They're poor, and yet they make everybody rich. They lack in all things, and yet they abound in them all. From the widows, they don't turn away their countenance. They rescue the orphan from him who does him violence. He who has gives to him who has not without grudging. When they see the stranger, they bring him into the dwellings and they rejoice over him as if it's another true brother.

Show me your righteousness. The early church did it.

Later on, there's another emperor on the throne of the Roman Empire, and he is annoyed by the growth of the Christian church. And the emperor Julian writes this about the church in the Roman Empire:

It is disgraceful when no Jew ever has to beg and these impious Galileans (that's what he calls the Christians) support not only their own poor, but ours as well. All men see our people lack aid from us.

In other words, he's like, "We're ashamed in the Roman Empire by how great the Christians are at giving, at living with such radical generosity." This is our family heritage, people. This is what the church throughout centuries has been known for. Show me your righteousness.

The Outline for Today

So here's my outline for today. If you take notes, it's in the bulletin too. The truly rich, the truly poor, and the last point, I wanna be rich.

So the truly rich. Here's what's remarkable. God's law here, this is what we're going through in the book of Deuteronomy. It has this fourfold call on us with regard to generosity, radical generosity. And it starts with this: the tithe that teaches.

We talked about tithes. Tithes are what we take up in the baskets in our church. We give 10% to the Lord and his work. That's what you're supposed to do in the first part of that passage. Every year, you take one tenth of all your crops, because they were all farmers, and you take it to the temple and you give it to the Lord. One tenth of all you produce.

The tithe was always meant to be a starting point for how people gave. And it's a tithe that teaches. It was really never about the money. It was always about God's people on the inside. It was about training your heart. Look up there:

For that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. — Deuteronomy 14

God commands tithing not to take from us.

It's not a tax. It's like training wheels on your bike. Kids use training wheels anymore? No. They use those scooter bikes. Right? So it's a training bike. It's a little scooter bike. It's meant to train God's people that we worship in a way that is always about generosity. We celebrate God's generosity to us, and we turn around and give that back to him. We say, this is what the tithe taught. Everything belongs to you. Everything belongs to you.

As such, it wasn't meant to be this emotional response. Like, man, great sermon, Jesus. Give some money. It was always ordered. It's a regular thing. Every year, you go do this. But this is sort of the starting point.

So here's where it gets kinda weird. And I'm gonna turn up the heat this morning. I know it's a little cold in here, but this pastor is gonna turn it up on us. Alright?

The Three-Year Tithe and Economic Safety Net

So the second part of being truly rich is this. The three here, every three year, storehouse for the stranger. The storehouse for the stranger. Now this is on top of giving 10%. This is an economic safety net for the people on the margins. First, it's for the Levite. That was their pastors in that time. So you're providing for the pastors, the people who led your church. It's also providing for the widow. So a woman in that day whose husband had died has no way of making money, the orphan, the person whose parents have died, and the stranger, people who are coming into Israel and have nothing. Right?

This is an additional tithe, and this is what you did. In this passage, though, notice the language around this. In this passage, they never call the orphan, the stranger, the widow, the other. They never call them them, but us. This is how God views his people. Yeah. How he wants us to see the world. Not as them out there and us in here, but we're always going us and more us and extra us.

You listen to the language in America right now. There's a lot of language about the undocumented immigrant as the other, as the alien. That's how our language works right now. But in the Bible, there's no other. It's always brother. It's always us.

So if you're doing your math, you're hanging in with this passage? So every year, you bring 10% back to God to the temple. Every three years, you take another 10%, and you take that to a storehouse, and you put it in there, and that feeds people for the next three years. So we're doing the math now. Everything belongs to you, 10%. That's the first one. The next one, the storehouse for the stranger, we're now up to 13.333%. Because what this is doing, what this says, everything belongs to you. That's the tithe. The storehouse for the stranger says, provide for your spiritual family. There's no other. It's brother. Okay. You're hanging in so far? It gets worse. Gets worse.

The Seven-Year Release

The seven year release. This is the first part of chapter 15. Every seven years, the whole nation experienced a sabbatical year. Now I had a sabbatical this past summer, and sabbatical means release, let go. So this summer, I let go of my work here at the church for several months, and I came back in September. This is what they're supposed to let go. They're supposed to let go of loans, of loans.

Every seven years you release, you let go of the loans you've given to other people. In that day, there's no banks. And if you needed a loan, the only people you could go to, you couldn't go down the street to Truist Bank or First Union. You couldn't go to any of those places. You went to your neighbor, to your family, to a friend, and you ask them to help you out. And you didn't get a loan like today, you get a loan for expanding your business. I need to buy a new car. I need a better car. You didn't have that then. You took out a loan from a friend when your family's starving, when your crops have failed, when your family's not gonna make it, and you go to your neighbor and you ask, could you help me?

There's a parent contradiction in this passage. Don't if you heard this, but it says two things. In verse four, let's put this up here.

There will be no poor among you. — Deuteronomy 15:4

Why? Because God is gonna be so generous and give them this awesome land. He's gonna send rain and crops, and it's all a lavish land he's giving them. And yet, verse seven:

There shouldn't be any poor if there is a poor man among you. — Deuteronomy 15:7

So wait, there shouldn't be any poor, but if there is a poor man. What's going on here? Why might an Israelite experience poverty? Wait. You know this. So an Israelite might make bad choices. Do we know people who make bad choices? Right? Who just kind of mess it up. So picture a guy who's growing lots of grapes, they make good wine, really like wine, like it a little too much so that I don't get up in the mornings early enough to do my planting. Bad choices. But we also know people are poor not just because of bad choices, because of bad circumstances.

So a woman—this is the book of Ruth. She has her husband, some adult sons. They're taking care of all the crops. In one year, everybody dies. The husband dies, the sons die—not her fault. She's not making bad choices. Things just happen. Do we know people for whom circumstances happen like that, where things are just bad?

So for whatever reason, either because of bad choices or circumstances, somebody's poor. And what are you supposed to do? If a fellow Israelite became poor, this is crazy. You can go to someone and say, help me. And they live in a time where that's what you had to do. Your neighbor comes to you and says, I'm not making it. And you say, okay. How much you need? That's the law. That's the law required.

Now, I want you to think about this. God didn't tell his people, hey, I want you to solve world poverty. That's how some of us hear this. And there's a New Testament version of this before. Have you ever heard the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25? We hear this passage where God says:

Whatever you've done to the least of these, you've done to me. — Matthew 25

And we're like, man, I gotta solve world hunger, and it feels like too much. We forget that there's two words in that passage. God doesn't say, whatever you've done to the least of these you've done to me. He says, what have you done to one of the least of these?

That was what was required for Israel. That's required for us. One person. Can you be generous to one person? Can you open up your heart and your life to this one other person who's coming to you?

See, the first tithe says this: everything belongs to God. The second tithe says: provide for your spiritual family. This is what the third tithe says: your neighbor's poverty is your problem.

So let's imagine where we are. Let's say it's another 5%. So you get 10% for the tithe, 13.33%—that's the second tithe, that's the storehouse for the stranger. Now let's say we're up another 5% for your loans. We're up to 18.333%. I don't know how much you think you give, but this is nuts, and we're not done. We've got another layer.

Okay, one more: filling up of the empty. The last hive is even more over the top. Let's read it here, verses 13 and 14:

When you let him go, the person you've forgiven the debt, you'll not let him go empty handed. You'll furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you give to him. — Deuteronomy 15:13-14

You know the American proverb? Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he can fish for a lifetime. This is kind of nuts because this is saying: not only do that, go help your friends set up a fishing business. That's what's in view here. Don't just leave them empty handed. Fill them up. Give them more than what they need.

So again, let's do the math. Let's say it's another 5%. So we're at 23.333% of your income that you're giving away. You're open handed to other people. Do you see what's going on in this passage?

If the first tithe says everything belongs to God, and the second tithe says provide for your spiritual family, the third one says your neighbor's poverty is your problem. The fourth one says this: make them whole. Make them whole.

Now can you imagine what kind of society it was to live in that? Can you imagine the way people took care of each other? This is God's righteousness on full display. This is why I'm like, show me the righteousness. This is what they were doing. If they lived out this law, do you see how this changes our definition of rich?

You all think you know what rich is. You don't know what rich is. You think rich is having a big bank account full of money, having nice stuff, having quality, having extra, over and above. We think we know what rich looks like because of what's on our social media and our TV. We think we know.

But this says the person who's rich is not the person who has a lot, but gives a lot. This is a person who's open handed. Who's like, you need? Sure. I got it for you. You're good, bro. I got you. This is what it actually means to be rich.

All of it belongs to God. Provide for your spiritual family. Your neighbor's poverty is your problem. Make them whole.

Now what's the body posture? Do you see what I did? Are you watching me? What's the body posture of the rich, the true rich? Come on. What kind of hands? This whole passage is about hands. Open hands. Not closed fists. Open handed.

So, look, I don't know what you give.

I don't know what you give, but this is a person who says, "What I own, I release. What is mine, Lord, is yours and for your people all the time." See, this is what's amazing. This is why there need be no poor among you—because grace always teaches us not that poverty is a sin, but grace never leaves anybody behind.

So if the law defines what the truly rich are, it also tells us what the truly poor are. I want to see if you noticed some of these words in the passage: hardhearted, tight fisted, malicious, mean, grudging. These are terms to describe somebody who has the heart of an orphan. He's like, "I better fight to keep what I got." Closed hands because of a closed heart. This is what the poor is.

So we think of the poor as people who don't have much materially. God's law says this is what's poor: somebody who lives like this, gotta hold on. Anybody ever seen the story A Christmas Carol about Ebenezer Scrooge? My favorite one is the Muppet's Christmas Carol—best one ever. Sorry, it is. It's just the best.

So little quiz time. You all know the story of Ebenezer Scrooge. Is there a difference in how much money that Ebenezer Scrooge has at the beginning of the movie or the story and at the end? Did he win the jackpot halfway through? Did he suddenly become rich overnight? Is there any difference in his bank account in the beginning and the end of the story? No. He has just as much money. The difference is this and this. He goes from someone who biblically, according to the law, is poor—miserly—to someone who's rich, opens his hands, gives away generously. It's all on the inside.

Money as an X-Ray

So money in the Bible is like an X-ray. It tells you about your heart. We hoard because we don't believe the truth of who God is, how generous he is with us, how good he is toward us. We give sparingly because we're so worried. We worship all kinds of idols with our money. We worship the idol of control: "If I give away, I lose my security." And we worship the idol of comfort: "I deserve what I got." Or the idol of approval: "What if I can't keep up with other people?"

But if money is like an X-ray, your attitude toward the poor is like a spiritual MRI. It tells you what's wrong, that there's something wrong on the inside. It shows you what you're like.

Did you notice that the law here gets really practical? There's this really weird story in the middle of this passage. Let me put this up here. Here's the situation:

If one of you among your brothers should become poor, you shall not harden your heart or close your hand to him. Because what does a hard heart look like? Look at this. Verse nine: "Take heed lest there be a base thought in your heart, and you say, 'The seventh year, the year of the release is near,' and your eyes are hostile to your poor brother and you give him nothing and he cries to the Lord against you and it be sin in you. You shall give him freely and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him." — Deuteronomy 15:7-10

Let's say that we're all Israelites here this morning. I come to you and it's Christmas Eve of 2025, and 2026 is going to be the year of releasing the debts. And I'm like, "Hey, we're behind at the Bradford House. We're struggling. Can I have like 3,000?" And this is what you do—you're doing the math. You're like, "Christmas. How many days we got left in the year till we have to forgive the loan?" So if I lend to you now, what's going to happen in a week? I'm going to lose all the money. You're not going to be good for this a week later.

And this is what the law says: that thought, that's poverty. That thought is poverty. Now in our perspective, we go, "Hey, way to go. Way to be street smart. Maybe you should drag it out a little bit for a week. Hey, Bradford, can you give me a budget? I'd love to see a budget." We're like, "Yeah, way to read the room. That's shrewd."

And the law says, no. That's poverty. That's an orphan mentality. That's "I better keep what's mine. I don't know what you're going to do with it."

See, the law exposes our hearts like an X-ray. Is that real life? Oh yeah. That's real life. There's something wrong with us. And the problem is we can't just snap our fingers and change our insides. Anybody want to be generous and have a hard time being generous? Right here, I have a really hard time being generous. I do the math all the time. I always wrestle like, "What about, I don't know, I need to be really careful."

And money exposes us. Our attitudes toward the poor expose us, and you can't change your hearts. And the gospel here is what's so important. Look, it's held out to us in this passage.

The gospel is held out to us in this passage in such a way. This is the only thing that changes a cold heart, a closed heart into an open heart. The only thing that opens hands, closed hands, is a heart that is open. The gospel is the key that opens this up.

How to Get an Open Heart

Let me show you this in this passage. This is the "I wanna be rich" part of this sermon—the opened heart. How do you get an open heart? Number one, you remember the source.

There's this funny little line in the middle of this passage where he reminds them of where everything came from. And look, this is how you remember the source: you remember God's rescuing grace.

See, you were once slaves. You remember your salvation. There was a time that I had no hope in the world, that I had no God in the world. There was a time I was in spiritual darkness. There was a time I was apart from Christ, that I was far off, and God has brought me near. He's Jesus, through no merit of my own, no work, not because I'm a good guy, not because I can do lots of things for him, he saved me, and that's it. This is what it means to remember God's rescuing grace. You were in bondage. You were slaves, and God rescued you.

In the Old Testament, here's the key to giving: God has freely rescued you, so freely give to your brothers and sisters. It's interesting how that changes in the New Testament. The New Testament doesn't emphasize the free nature of grace, but the costly nature of grace because Jesus died for you.

We have this passage that we roll out a lot of times at Christmas time. We talk about Jesus and his incarnation, and we say this:

You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich.

So here's the ethic of the New Testament: give in a way that costs you because his grace cost him everything for you.

See, God's grace is what changed hearts. We read this over and over in your gospels. The grace of God is what makes the widow who has nothing give away over and above. Grace is what makes Zacchaeus, who'd been a tax collector, who'd been all about how do I make money, give away four times what he had swindled from other people. And conversely, a lack of understanding of grace is what makes the rich young ruler who says, "I've done it all. I'm a good guy," walk away from God and say, "Don't want anything to do with this."

See, only grace changes the inside of us. We remember, "I was in bondage. I was a slave." That's the first thing that opens our hearts.

What God Has Given Us

The second is we remember what God has given us. I want you to think about this. Israel is a nation of former slaves. They walk into the promised land, and they walk into a country that's already been inhabited. Somebody's already dug up the forest and made them into fields. Somebody's already planted vineyards, and they come in and they take possession of this land that they didn't do anything to get.

And this is what Moses reminds them of in this passage in Deuteronomy. He tells them, "If any of you, your brother should be comparing your lands with regard to your oil, that the Lord God is giving you."

Verse 7: "Why do you have means, Israel? Because I gave them to you. Why do you have land? Because it's from me."

All of it is a gift. All of it a gift. Do we deserve it? No. We remember all we have is from him.

There's a pastor named Ricky Jones who wrote a book years ago about his own experience of God's grace, and he ties it back to what happened one year over Christmas. So Ricky's in the fourth grade, and he has older siblings, and he's tired of making his mom pictures for Christmas every year, giving his mom drawings. He wants to like his older siblings who have jobs, he wants to buy her a present. And he's moping around the house one day, and she asks him what's wrong, and he's like, "I don't have any money for Christmas. I can't buy presents."

And she sort of tucks that thought away. So later that week, it's on a Saturday, she looks out the window and says, "You know, we got so many sticks out in the yard. I wish somebody would go pick up the sticks for me. I would be willing to pay somebody $10 just to go pick up the sticks."

Now it was Ricky's job every week to pick up the sticks. No, he never got money for this. This was just part of what he did as part of the family. But he hears that, and he's like, "Oh." And he gets up, and he immediately goes outside, and he gathers up all the sticks in the yard, and he puts them in a big pile, and he comes in and tells his mom, "I picked up all the sticks."

She's like, "Oh, I'm so delighted. Thanks. Here's $10. You know, I think I'm gonna go shopping. Would you like to go shopping with me?"

And Ricky's like, "Sure. I'll go to the store." And she's driving to the store.

She's like, "You know, there's this store. I was there the other day, and I saw this necklace that I just love. My heart is really set on this necklace, and I would love to have that for Christmas." So they go to the store, and they separate. Ricky finds the necklace. It costs $9. It tells you how great this necklace is. He buys it and brings it home, hiding it in his jacket from his mom.

They get home. He goes upstairs to wrap the present. He's a fourth grader, so the wrapping isn't awesome. It's good, but it's not awesome. He begins to get more and more angry, and he begins crying. His mom comes upstairs and says, "What's wrong?"

He says, "I can't wrap the present." So she helps him wrap the present. Then he takes it down and puts it under the Christmas tree.

Christmas morning comes around. Ricky gets the present—the present that his mom paid him to buy with the money that she gave him, with the wrapping job that she did—and gives it to his mom. This is what she said. I just love it. "Thank you." She grabs him and he says, "She was so overjoyed to see me happy, and both of us were caught in that spiral of delight once again."

When the gospel gets in us, when we understand our rescue and how all of this—all of what you have—is from him, it's all grace. Then you can open your hands. And like the ridiculousness of that story, I mean, all we have to offer him is what he's given us. So here's my conclusion for today.

What Should You Do?

What should you do in response to today's message? Here's my answer: please don't do anything. When I give y'all stuff to do, some of you love it. You can do that, and what happens on the inside lasts maybe fifteen minutes because it's a checklist. I know something about this church. We're good at checklists and getting stuff done. I don't want you to do anything today. Nada. Zilch. Nothing.

Instead, I want you to spend some time with this question: What kind of a person am I becoming? Am I becoming a person who's truly rich? All I have is Christ. He is my life. Am I becoming a person who's more and more living out the wealth that I have in Jesus, and it's obvious in my life? Or am I becoming a person who's actually truly poor on the inside, turned more in, careful, shrewd—but actually that's a mask for something really wrong?

Who are you? What are you becoming?

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word. There's nothing like your word. The way it has the power to cut through even all of our wisdom. Lord, we pray that you would help us to be people who live out what it means to be truly rich because you have made us rich in Christ. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.