"The Life God Blesses"
Sermon Transcript for January 16, 2005
Scripture Reading: II Corinthians 9:6-13
By Rev. Mike Beck
This coming week will be the time in which we invite all of those who consider Grace Church to be their church home to make their commitment to the General Fund Budget for 2005. And your collective response is very important to our future. But I shared with the Finance Committee recently the awkwardness that I felt in bringing this particular message because I shared with them, I said, “There is no way I can get in the pulpit and scold the people of Grace for their giving!” Our total giving has doubled in the last five years. Our giving during 2004 exceeded a million dollars for the very first time in this church’s history. That’s a lot of money! You are a generous people. And yet, at the same time, there are some very real needs in a critical part of our ministry called the General Fund budget. Now, let me say this. It is a little bit dangerous, but some of you can ignore my message today. I invite you to listen in, but as you listen in would you hear God saying to you in terms of your giving, “Well done good and faithful servant. You are more than doing your part in the ministry of Grace Church financially.”
But Reverend Dan really likes trains. So let me try, as we think about the General Fund, to use an analogy related to trains. The General Fund is the Locomotive that drives the train we call Grace Church. If the Locomotive lacks fuel, all the cars of ministry behind that locomotive feel the effect of that. And then I tried in my thinking to carry the analogy a little further. We might say that at the train of ministry called Grace Church, God is the Engineer. Jesus is the Conductor. And then I thought, “What do I say the Holy Spirit is?” So I made the train be a steam locomotive and I said the Holy Spirit shovels the coal supplying the power to the engine. But all of us play an important role helping them to get the train down the tracks!
So as we begin this morning, the purpose of my message is threefold:
1. To thank you
2. To lift up some principles on giving from the Word of God
3. To just encourage you on in your journey of following Christ.
So in that light would you pray with me and for me? Let’s pray: “Heavenly Father, through my weak and human words, I would ask that your Holy Spirit that is present among us even now that you would speak your individualized word to each person that is gathered here this morning. And then, as followers of Jesus Christ, whatever it is that you are saying to us, help us to express our faith and obedience to you. We will give you the praise, the honor, and the glory. Amen.”
There is a sense in which the message this morning follows up some of the things Reverend Dan said so very well last Sunday. He was talking about worship and if we had time to look in depth at worship in the Old Testament, we would find three elements in every time worship is referred to. There was always thanksgiving, there was always offerings, and there was always sacrifice. Now the Old Testament doesn’t saying anything at all about worship containing preaching. Now we know later they began to read from some of the sacred text. But in the Old Testament, worship always included those three elements.
Three hundred seventy three times in the Old Testament you will find reference to an “altar”. Now, if we had time to study the stories, we would see that in every case, that altar in the beginning they were very crude. They were just piles of rocks. And then as the Tabernacle and the Temple began to come into being, the altar became much more ornate as our beautiful stone altar here is. But it is interesting that in all 373 times that the word “altar” is used, it is related to these three things. An altar related to thanksgiving; it is where people place their offerings; it is where the sacrifice was given.
Now, in response to those offerings, we find that as God was pleased He promised to bless His people. Now, it is very important that you hear me carefully here. When we talk about the blessings of God, we are not necessarily talking about physical blessings. We are definitely not talking about the prosperity gospel that you see preached on some of the religious television stations. If I happen to have some of those shows on, I just get vehemently angry as they tell me, “I’ll just send in the last $20 I’ve got. God will automatically turn it into $40 and give it back to me. That if we will just be faithful to God we’ll never have any health problem.” I want to say to some of those preachers, “Would you just go with me and make some hospital calls?” On some of the most devout disciples of Jesus Christ I know—Florence Kemp being the current example—who is going through a very difficult time of suffering. I don’t know how they can reconcile that with our Lord who said He didn’t even have a place, an earthly place, to lay His head! I have problems reconciling that with some of these “Christian Disneyland places”.
Now God’s blessings can be material in nature. All of us here should be forever grateful for years of good health we enjoyed, for relationships that bring joy to our life, to the financial resources that God has given to us. But when we talk about the blessings of God, we are talking about something far more all encompassing and eternal than simply those physical things that we experience in these few years we live here on earth. Let me flesh that out for you as we think about the blessings of God. Those of us who know God have purpose and meaning for our life that those who don’t know God do not have. We have the privilege of a personal relationship with the God who brought the world into being through faith in Jesus Christ. And that relationship is made known to us every moment of every day through the person of the Holy Spirit.
The blessings of God include the fruit of the Spirit that begins to be evidenced in us as a result of our relationship with God and the work of His Holy Spirit within us. We begin to see love and joy and peace, patience and kindness, and goodness, and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control. We begin to know those things in deeper ways because our relationship with God is a blessing.
God’s blessing includes what we call His grace. And it is amazing! Grace in the Bible refers to two things—most of all it refers to His forgiveness, His unmerited favor. Bring to mind the worst thing you ever did and realize that as a follower of Jesus Christ, God is not registering at all what you are bringing to mind right now. He says, “Forgiven--buried in the depths of the deepest sea.” And when we think of God’s grace, we think of that strength that God gives to us when we go through those difficult moments in life.
We have the blessing of being a part of the “body of Christ” that is known as the church. Give some thought for just a moment of all the ways over the years in which your life has been enriched because you were a part of God’s church. That’s one of His blessings.
And then, finally, when we think of the blessings of God as going far beyond just material things, all of us someday are going to take a ride in the back of a hearse to the cemetery. But as those cars behind us, people are mourning our passing; at that very moment never will we be more alive than we are then as we have taken our place with loved ones who have gone on before in heaven.
And as you look at those things there on the screen that looks to me like a pretty big pile of blessings that God wants to throw out upon us. Let’s think for just a moment, in the New Testament, as to how this concept of giving and our understanding of it is expanded. If you will remember, Jesus told a story call the “Parable of the Talents”. And in that story, He taught us that whatever God has given us in the way of time, in the way of our abilities, in the way of our financial resources, He wants us to be stewards of those things in the work of the Kingdom of God. And that Parable reveals that how we use those talents is something of a test of our love for God. For at the end of that parable, Jesus said, “You have been faithful in a little, and therefore I will entrust you with more.”
We remember the story of Jesus sitting in the Temple one day. And he observed a widow putting two small coins into the Temple treasury. We have come to refer to them as “a widow’s mite”. They were each worth about a penny in today’s standards. And Jesus says to His disciples, he says, “See that lady, that widow lady? She has given more than any one else has given today.” And they kind of scratched their heads because they knew that she had given only a very small amount. It’s kind of humbling to realize that when the offering plate is passed, God is watching just as Jesus was sitting there watching people. Now, a preacher doesn’t do that with you; I try to look elsewhere when the offering plates are being passed. But God is watching! And as He observes our offerings, it is never equal giving that God is looking for. It is equal sacrifice. Some persons here at Grace who are giving the most, in God’s eyes are some of the folks who make the least money. Single parents, retired persons living on fixed incomes seeing their medical prescription costs escalate and yet they are still trying to faithfully give what they can to the church, persons struggling with employment and yet still seeking to make an offering when the collection plates were passed. That’s why a message of this type always makes me feel a little uncomfortable because I know there are some single parents and there are some retired people that are really struggling. And there are people that are out of work. And I am not wanting them to feel a guilt trip because in this example we’ve just used, they may actually be the ones who are giving the most in God’s eyes.
We remember the story of the woman whom Jesus had forgiven her many sins. We don’t know what they were, but obviously she wasn’t a person of noble character. And following that she breaks in to a meal that Jesus was having with the religious leaders and she has in her hand the most valuable possession she owns—a flask of expensive perfume. And she begins to pour it on Jesus’ feet. And that story teaches us our offerings are to be a response of love and gratitude because we are aware of all that God has done for us that we don’t deserve. And as a result, we want to offer something back to Him. In fact, there is this word of warning that is taught throughout Scripture in terms of our giving: We are constantly taught we can follow the letter of the law and totally miss the heart of God. For God doesn’t ask for simply 10% of our income. God says, “I want 100% of who you are freely surrendered in love and gratitude.
One of my favorite stories in the New Testament is the story of old Zaccheus. Not very tall, kind of a scoundrel, collected taxes, didn’t do it with integrity. But he knows Jesus is coming through Jericho and he’s curious. He wants to see this miracle worker. So he climbs up in that sycamore tree and he couldn’t expect that Jesus stops right under the tree and looks up and says, “Zaccheus, can I have supper with you?” Now you need to know something of the culture of the day. If you entered a person’s home to have a meal with them, you were saying, “You are fully accepted by me.” And one of the versus my confirmation kids memorize, it says, “And Zaccheus came down and welcomed Jesus gladly.” He ran home, fixed the best meal that he had, invited some of his friends and over dinner said, “Lord, I’ve cheated a bunch of people and I’m going to give back 50% of everything I own.” Why does he do what seems foolish to us? Because he had come in touch with God’s amazing love and grace!
Jesus one day in talking to the preachers of His day--we say the Pharisees and the religious leaders. Let’s make it close to home. He was talking to the local Ministerial Association. And He said, “Woe to you Pharisees. You give God a tenth of your mint, rue and other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former.” In other words, Jesus says to them, “Your tithes is important but doing justice and giving as a response of love, that is what is really important in God’s eyes.”
God’s Word clearly teaches that motive is everything for our giving. God desires that we be obedient, to worship Him with our tithes and our offerings. But friends, if our giving to God is like paying the bill, we have totally missed the point spiritually. So in closing let me simply lift up some phrases in the verses we read earlier from II Corinthians, Chapter 9. That passage began with these words, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will reap generously…” It talks about the analogy of seed. So let me ask you this question, “How much seed for the Kingdom of God are you spreading around?” And then later on it says, “He (God) who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store (note the words) of seed and will enlarge…” Don’t think it says my bank account. Maybe that will happen. But it says, “will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.” Now the end result here is not necessarily physical things. Although if you look at the passage above, notice the promise. God will supply all of your needs. Unfortunately it didn’t say God will supply all of your wants. God will supply all of your needs. But what He wants to enlarge is not our material possessions, although that may occur and when it occurs we give thanks to God. But what God wants to enlarge is the Kingdom of God and our personal righteousness.
So let me ask you these questions as God looks down on Grace Church. Does He see a harvest taking place for the Kingdom of God? Now there are many things I can mention, but let me mention one just this last week where I am confident God looked down and said, “I’m pleased with the harvest of righteousness. The Wesley Room contained 25 people on Wednesday evening for the ALPHA Course. Man, was God ever at work within those walls. The leaders of the course, you know the only problem they had that evening? They couldn’t get people to go home when the class was over! They were connecting, they were visiting with one another, and they were continuing to ask questions. Boy I’ll take a problem like that in the church all the time! And as God looks down on your and my personal giving, does He see growth in righteousness? And you say, “Reverend Mike, how do you measure that?” Two things—first of all obedience; secondly, love for God.
And then later on the Scripture it says, “This service that you perform (your offerings) is not only supplying the needs of God’s people (that’s our ministries here at Grace) but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.” You know where those expressions of thanks are coming from? They are coming from other people whose lives are touched because of your gifts. Let me give you two examples. Kevin Short, the Director of the new and very important ministry in this community called “Marriage Investors” stopped in my office this week to say “thanks” for all the people here at Grace were doing to support that community ministry. And the group going to the Holy Land, I think it will be on Wednesday, they will stop at the Bethlehem Bible College and they will meet the students and the Bishop will greet them. And they will say “thanks” to Grace Church because in their new building program $20,000 is being sent from Grace Church to help instruct them in building. And they are expressions of thanks to God.
And then the Scripture says, “Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves…” In other words, whether we like it or not when the offering plates are passed, it’s something of a test of our love of God. “…by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God…” Read the next three words with me, “for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ.” What is being said there by Paul? It is not enough just to “talk the talk”. God expects us to “walk the walk”. And perhaps nowhere is the evidence of that seen more clearly than in the area of that which is closest to our heart—our treasure. Which is why Jesus said, “where your treasure is, that’s where I’ll find your heart.”
And then the passage concludes, “and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.” Let me ask you this simple question, “Have you ever met a generous person who was not a happy person? Have you ever met a generous person that wasn’t a happy person? Have you ever met a generous person that had a bad attitude towards life? I haven’t! So as you read the letter that is mailed to you this week and as you fill out your commitment card, will God see a joyful, generous response? Let us pray: “In the words of the hymn Lord, we would pray that you would have thine own way. You art the Potter; we are the clay. Mold us and make us after Thy will. While we are waiting, and in that hymn, Lord, the important verb is yielding and still. Bring these things in the name of the Christ who loved us so much that He went to Calvary’s cross and gave His all so that we might be His children. Amen.”
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