Matthew Goldstine

Camping Trip

In the middle of Francis and Lisa Chan’s book on marriage, You and Me Forever, Lisa describes missional living in a way that’s stuck with me since I first read it.

Reflecting on her beloved childhood family camping trips, Lisa noticed the connection of the glorious feeling of returning home to that of the Christian gloriously reaching eternity. If finally getting home to sleep in your own bed is as great a feeling as it is, how much greater will our entrance into heaven be? Our home now is temporary. It can’t hold a candle to what our lives will be like in eternity. In Lisa’s words, “We are on a camping trip! It might be a 70 or 80 year camping trip, but that’s all it is” (126).

She continues, “It would have been laughable to see people rolling up into our campsite with their luxury vehicles, pre-built homes, pristine clothing, potted plants, and their personal gourmet chefs. That’s not camping. When you’re on a temporary camping trip, you are more than content with the basics. You don’t need to set up a well decorated, cushy home, because you already know that the majority of your time will be spent pursuing the adventure” (127).

Here’s a question: How are you treating your camping trip?

Are you making your campsite as nice as possible, spending all your time and energy on the potted plants and decorations? Or are you pursuing the adventure, trusting that the basics are all you need until you get home from this temporary camping trip of life?

Our God is trustworthy.

He has promised his provision. Look at Matthew 6:25-34:

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

He has promised us an inheritance. Look at 1 Peter 1:3-5:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

The best piece of advice I can give you is this: trust God, and steward your (His) resources in light of eternity, not for this temporary camping trip.

Sabbath as Fuel for Generosity

During Jesus’ ministry, someone in a crowd approached him hoping to get Jesus to force his brother to divide their father’s inheritance with them (Luke 12:13). We don’t have many details, so we aren’t sure if the inheritance was deserved or not, but we see in the text that there was greed in the inquirer’s heart.

Jesus refused to step in to settle this personal dispute, then used the moment to teach against greed. He followed with this parable, found in Luke 12:16-21:

“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.’”

There’s a lot of great stuff here, but I want to focus specifically on the statement the rich fool made to his soul. After he had acquired himself large barns worth of crops– in the moment where he felt he had “made it”– he could finally allow himself to relax and enjoy life.

This mindset is about as anti-Sabbath as you can get. In Sabbath living, God tells you to regularly stop working to enjoy Him and the gifts of life, knowing that we are not defined by our productivity and success. In contrast, this man lived as though he had to get to the top of the ladder before he could ever rest. In doing so, he missed living a life of real value, foolishly building his stockpile while ignoring the real riches of a relationship with God.

Today, I’d like to suggest that the practice of Sabbath is deeply connected with our generosity.

See, when we live as the rich fool, resting only when we think we’ve attained enough success and safety, we become servants to our stockpiles. Instead of becoming generous people, our focus becomes the ruthless pursuit of obtaining more. Our generosity, if it ever comes, becomes predicated on the lack of sacrifice we have to make for it. According to Jesus, though, our generosity isn’t always going to be easy. It’s good, and it forms us toward Christlikeness, but we’re missing the mark if we decide to only be generous once we’re rich. Generosity starts with the small things.

However, when we practice Sabbath we build a habit of rejecting greed. We stop our pursuit of getting more and choose to be content in Christ with all we have. This, inevitably, will cause us to be more generous people. The more we reject our greed, the more we will want to be generous toward others with our resources, understanding that knowing Christ is our ultimate goal.

Maybe a next step for you as you’re seeking to grow in generosity is to begin by practicing the Sabbath. Jake Bishop talks about this practice in more detail on Episode 10 of the Impact the World podcast, which you can find on West Park’s website.

Consider how the practice of Sabbath is connected to generosity. (Note: increasing your generosity is not the primary purpose of the Sabbath, just a natural side effect.) Consider how your current lifestyle rhythms shape your approach to generosity. Consider whether or not you are, as Jesus puts it, “rich toward God.”

On the day your soul is required of you, how will you have prepared it?

The Riches of God

Ephesians has recently become one of my favorite books in the Bible. I love the way it unpacks deep theology about relationships, both with God and others, and provides practical applications for how we should live. In the first three chapters– where Paul is building his theological foundation– the word riches is used 6 times.

Riches are used to describe God’s grace (1:7, 2:7), his glorious inheritance for his children (1:18), his mercy (2:4), his glory (3:16), and Christ himself (3:8).

That God is rich is not a hard statement for us to recognize or agree with. If God is infinite and sovereign, he has everything in the palm of his hand and is therefore rich, possessing all.

But what does God do with his riches? That is the question.

What does God do with his riches, and how can we emulate Him with our own riches?

We don’t have to look far into the letter to see how God spent his riches. In the first chapter, Paul asserts that “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:7-10).

That’s a mouthful, for sure, but it’s a sentence packed with beautiful truth. Let’s look at a couple of points about how God has spent his riches.

1) God has lavished his riches upon us.

The word lavished is perisseuo in the Greek, meaning “to be over and above, to abound.” It is to exceed the necessary. Not only are we saved from our spiritual death by Jesus’ blood, but we are made heirs to God’s extravagant riches. He has exceeded what was necessary and blessed us extraordinarily. Think about the father in the story of the prodigal son; he not only received his son back into his home but eagerly celebrated his return with newfound blessings.

2) God has lavished his riches upon us wisely and according to his ultimate purpose.

Don’t miss this second point. God, knowing all things, working in accordance with his great plan of redemption from eternity past, lavished his riches upon us undeserving humans. It wasn’t a flippant, careless wasting of his resources. He didn’t throw his riches away as we might in a moment of poor financial judgment. He counted the cost. He knew what it would mean for him to lavish these riches upon us, and yet he decided that this was the best way he could use them.

God’s generosity is directly connected to his overarching plan to unite heaven and earth and restore the world to the Edenic order.

So how do we respond?

1) With thanksgiving

We didn’t deserve an ounce of his riches to be lavished on us, and yet he did. He is our Good Father, and we respond with genuine gratitude and thanksgiving for the spiritual riches we have received in Christ (the riches that far exceed our earthly riches, whether we have them or not).

2) With imitation

If God knew that his riches were better lavished upon others than stored for himself, we should respond by imitating him in trust and obedience.

Our generosity is informed by Christ’s generosity. We extend our riches– spiritual, material, and everything in between– to those around us to live out God’s plan of restoring Eden. And we don’t only extend them to those we deem as worthy, whatever that means. Like God, our riches are lavished on others not because the recipient is deserving, but because the ultimate Giver receives glory as a result.

So use your riches with wisdom, and do so according to God’s ultimate purpose. How do you steward your time, talents, and treasures for the kingdom? Are they riches you store up to use for yourself, building your own kingdom, or are they riches that will be lavished to glorify God?

Eternal Investment

I’ve always enjoyed the show Shark Tank. You know, the one where business owners and dreamers pitch their companies to a group of uber-rich investors. Here’s how it works: the owners need capital in order to bring their ideas to fruition. The investors are happy to supply that capital… for the price of ownership in the company. Since they adopt the risk that they will lose money if the business doesn’t pan out, the incentive is that they own a portion of the company, so they’ll recoup a handsome return on investment if it does well.

They can never know for certain whether a business idea will work, but the responsibility is on the investors to do as much due diligence as possible and only take the risk of investment if they’re more confident than not that the investment will pay off.

In some cases, the deals are more complicated than a simple capital-for-ownership swap. Depending on the circumstance, the deal sometimes involves a royalty. The shark provides the money, but instead of receiving a percentage of ownership of the company, they receive a dollar amount off every unit sold.

This is going to be an admittedly a somewhat comical analogy, but it’s how my brain works, so stick with me.

Imagine you’re an investor– a shark– in the Shark Tank. Jesus is pitching to you. Here’s his offer:

Hello shark, my name is Jesus of Nazareth. My business is the Business of Heaven, and I’m here today to offer you an exciting opportunity to be a part of the greatest deal in all of history. Here’s what I’m asking for:

Everything you’ve got.

And here’s what’s in it for you:

Everything I’ve got.

It’s a straight-up trade. But let me tell you, it’s not an even one.

Now, I don’t know about you, but the five loaves and two fish in my possession don’t hold a candle to thousands of loaves in His. The eternal inheritance of Christ is worth a bit more than the moth-ridden and rust-eroded set of possessions I’ve accumulated for myself.

The problem is, it’s hard to keep focused on that reality when his eternal inheritance is presently invisible and my shiny possessions don’t seem to bear the marks of erosion quite yet.

Pause for a second and reflect on the deal you’ve been given. As an investor, there will never be another who will come into the Tank and offer you a better deal. The return on investment is infinite. No matter how many things you empty your hands of to uphold your end of the deal, you’ll find that endlessly more is placed back in them.

When this truth reverberates in your soul– when it is unbelievably, experientially true for you– you’ll become eager to help other investors get in on the same deal.

See, that’s the beauty. Even though Jesus has offered you this deal, he offers it to everyone else as well, and his offer to them does not keep you from your reward. You don’t get less if other investors are brought in on the deal, so there’s only incentive to bring others in.

We’re in the age between the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and the Great Multitude (Revelation 7:9-10). After Jesus resurrected, he commissioned his disciples to make disciples of all nations. In John’s apocalyptic vision of the future, he saw “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…”

The Great Commission is currently being fulfilled, and we have assurance that it will finally be fulfilled one day. As we live in this “already, but not yet” time, we have the opportunity to live out this great deal we’ve invested in.

Each one of us possesses some kind of treasure that can be sacrificed for the kingdom– our finances, our possessions, our resources, our talents. We hold these things in our hands, but the question is, Does God possess this thing, or do I?

If you are a disciple of Jesus, He owns it. That’s how the trade works. He’s got a claim on it all. Whether it’s your finances or your time or your energy, it all belongs to Jesus. It may be in your hands for the time being, but that’s simply a result of living life in this in-between age.

Anything you have is merely borrowed from God.

So, this begs the question: What are you doing with God’s resources?

The Radical Experiment

My freshman year of college, I read a book by David Platt titled Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream. The premise of the book is that American Christians can be easily distracted by the American Dream, forgetting what Jesus described as the life of a disciple.

It was a compelling read, helping a (suburban) Christian such as myself recognize the blind spots of my faith and some of the idols I had begun to worship in my life (security, wealth, etc.).

In the final chapter of the book, Platt suggests a one-year experiment called “The Radical Experiment.” Now, I had read this book once prior in high school, but I have this great (read: bad) habit of ignoring calls to action in books. For better and for worse, I typically read all that a book has to say and then move on immediately to the next one, mostly forgetting how the previous book wanted me to respond.

Fortunately, I was feeling a bit bold this go around. I figured I had nothing to lose, and what can I say, I was drawn by Platt’s pitch: “I guarantee that if you complete this experiment, you will possess an insatiable desire to spend the rest of your life in radical abandonment to Christ for his glory in all the world” (184). Wow, who wouldn’t want that?

Here’s the experiment. It has five components, five dares to live out over one year:

-Pray for the entire world

-Read through the entire Bible

-Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose

-Spend at least a week sharing the gospel outside your local context/city

-Grow as a committed, active, devoted member of a local church

That middle component– to sacrifice your money for a specific purpose– is undoubtedly the most intimidating of the five for many of us. Here’s how Platt describes this challenge:

“What if you took the next year and set a cap on your lifestyle? What if you sought for the next year to minimize luxuries in your life? … The key word here, again, is sacrifice. The challenge is not just to give away excess stuff that you really don’t need anyway. That’s not sacrifice. Sacrifice is giving away what it hurts to give. Sacrifice is not giving according to your ability; it’s giving beyond your ability” (194-195).

The challenge is to figure out the minimum amount of money it takes for you to live for a year– no luxuries, no excess– and then to commit to giving away every dollar above that. You make $50,000 a year, but can live off $30,000? Great, instead of financing your ever growing book addiction (you, not me, of course) or eating out five days a week or spending money to go out on vacation or to pad your retirement fund, sacrifice it all.

Scary, right?

He goes on to provide a couple of parameters: focus your money on the gospel and the church, give to a specific need, and give strategically. Despite the parameters, he leaves a lot of freedom for practice. There isn’t a list of what counts as a luxury or necessity– you have to prayerfully figure out those things for yourself.

Now, remember: I was an 18-year-old freshman in college when I decided I would give this experiment a shot. I was barely making any money, and my parents were graciously funding virtually all expenses I had, so I had to alter the dare a bit to fit my situation.

At the time, all the money I made was either going toward my savings or toward whatever luxury I wanted. I decided I’d sacrifice the majority of my money, and keep a little less than half to build up my savings.

So, apart from a couple of exceptions defined at the outset of the experiment, I spent a year not spending any excess money. No eating out, nothing.

Admittedly, it was tough. I got mostly used to it after a few months, but it was still a challenge for me to constantly give away money I was working for when I knew there were hundreds of things I would’ve rather spent it on.

But, as you can guess, it was an incredible experience for my generosity.

A friend of mine was in the process of adopting a child and I was able to contribute to their fund.

My church network was fundraising for its next plant and I was able to help fund the ministry that Banner Church in Jacksonville, Alabama is currently doing.

Globally, different needs arose and I was able to assist in small bits, connecting me to the universal church’s mission internationally.

I finished the experiment in December 2019, and I’ll admit I am nowhere near this level of sacrifice with my finances currently, almost three years removed. But I am undoubtedly more generous than I would’ve been otherwise. Here are the biggest lessons I learned as I reflect on that year:

-Sacrificial generosity helps you understand and experience Christ’s sacrificial generosity toward you more strongly.

-Depriving yourself of some earthly possessions/experiences/luxuries does not reduce your quality of life the way you’re tempted to believe.

-It truly is more blessed to give than to receive.

-Needs and wants are very different, but unfortunately we have a bad habit of blurring the line between the two.

My Radical Experiment, intimidating as it was, turned out to be the most pivotal year for my faith to that point. I’d never grown so much in a year, and I’d say my faith is still experiencing the benefits of that time to this day. Much of it had to do with the other four components, but the financial component undoubtedly played its part.

Having shared my experience, I’ll finish with a warning. This experiment is not a way to earn God’s love. It’s not to be done to boost pride. It’s a way to, as Platt explains, test the claims of Jesus in a practical way.

I was hesitant to share this story because my goal is not for you to read this and have me look good or for you to feel like you have to try this experiment. I decided to because I cannot deny its impact on my life. Read the book. Pray. Talk to me, if you’d like. Consider how you can live out the Gospel through your stewardship.

At the end of the day, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Nothing else is worth it.