Psalm 80:1-7 - “Lament Number 223”

1st Sunday in Advent (Year B, Lutheran Service Book readings)
Sunday, November 27, 2011

• Start putting black pieces of cloth into a box marked with David Sweeney’s “Lament Number 223,” saying one word per piece of cloth.
• Sadness, grief, despair, fights, war, shame, hurtful words, hurtful actions, sickness, death, loss, pain.
• Tape up box and put it under a chair in the corner.

• Ask congregation: Where are my laments?
• “In the corner, boxed up, taped up, hidden”
• Ask congregation: Where are your laments?

• Somewhere along the way we get the idea that we need to box up our laments, our sadnesses, our distresses, box them up during the season of Advent—which really has become known as the season of Christmas—what with everyone preparing for Christmas and talking about Christmas and good cheer and eggnog and what not.
• We get the idea we need to box up all of that dark stuff and hide it in the corner during Advent.
• Like putting away the normal decorations in the house to make room for the Christmas decorations, we box up our laments, mark the box, and put it away until January.

• That’s what David Sweeney’s art piece got me thinking
• The stenciled word “lament” over and over again
• Like marking a box, marking a box that contains all of our dark stuff
• It’s “Lament Number 223,” another in the series of laments by David Sweeney.
• Rather than giving his work titles, Sweeney numbers them, but to me it’s another reminder of how we treat our laments—especially during this season—we mark them like just something else to be numbered, we box them up, shove them in a corner, and try to stop thinking about what’s in there.

• My Grandpa died during Advent in 2000.
• We spent those last couple of days with him in the hospital, we grieved and had the funeral, but I’ll admit that as soon as I returned to my congregation, I got right back to work, preached the next week, talked about Grandpa and grief but really I put the lament in the corner and went on with what I had to. The lament was boxed up, labeled and numbered, and left there to gather dust.
• I suppose I thought it wasn’t appropriate to keep my lament, my grief around during the season of Christmas.
• I suppose I thought I’d take out my lament when it was more appropriate in January.

• Ask the congregation: Where were my laments?
• “In the corner, boxed up, taped up, hidden”
• Ask congregation: Where are your laments?

• So now what?
• Do we really just leave those laments in the corner?
• Today’s Psalm reading, the Psalm reading appointed for the First Sunday in Advent won’t let us leave the laments in the corner.

1 Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel,
Awaken your might;
come and save us.
3 Restore us, O God;
make your face shine upon us,
that we may be saved.
4 O LORD God Almighty,
how long will your anger smolder
against the prayers of your people?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears;
you have made them drink tears by the bowlful.
6 You have made us a source of contention to our neighbors,
and our enemies mock us.
7 Restore us, O God Almighty;
make your face shine upon us,
that we may be saved.
• O Lord God Almighty, how long will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people?
You have fed them with the bread of tears;
You have made them drink tears by the bowlful.

 
• Psalm 80:1-7, the reading for the First Sunday in Advent stops us short. There’s the psalm making the request to the warehouse: “Bring out the box marked ‘Lament.’”

• Bring box back.

• There’s the psalm looking past the way in which we tried to hide our lament under the cover of starkly stenciled words. There’s the psalm not letting the lament be hidden until a more convenient time. There’s the psalm causing us to see that lament is most crucial to our understanding of Advent.

• Psalm 80 calls on God to act: “Restore us.” It does not let God go quietly into the Christmas celebration as if that was enough; instead it says: “Save us.” It does not settle for the glow of Christmas lights, but instead pleads for God’s benediction: “Make your face shine upon us.”

• Psalm 80 remains aware of the urgent wondering and the blank stare we get when we look up into the sky. “O LORD God Almighty, how long will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people?” How long until you come to save us?
• Even now with the knowledge of salvation through the cross and resurrection of Christ, we still wonder how long until the skies open up to reveal Jesus returning. And until He returns, we lament. We cry out. “Restore us, save us, make your face shine upon us.”

• Psalm 80 invites us to bring out the box from the back shelf, gently dust it off, open up the lament, and let God have it.

• Open box up, start pulling out fabric pieces and reading the words.
• Sadness, grief, despair, fights, war, shame, hurtful words, hurtful actions, sickness, death, loss, pain.

• Psalm 80 invites us to take those laments back out and bring those laments to God.

• We were never meant to warehouse those laments; we were meant to take them to God who promises He will save us.

• Put fabric pieces back in box, (don’t tape it shut), and put it under the altar.

• We take those laments to God, because He promises to hear our laments and promises to save us through Jesus, save us from the laments of this world.
• We go to God, because He promises to shine His face upon us, look upon us with His grace and warmth, promises to lift us up out of this darkness.

• We may have gotten the idea along the way that Advent, this season of preparing for Christmas, this season of shopping and parties, that this season means that we should box up our laments.
• But really Advent was made for laments.
• Advent means “waiting,” and we’re certainly waiting for the Lord.
• Yes, the Lord came as a babe born in Bethlehem, the Lord has come.
• But we’re still waiting, waiting for Christ to return, waiting for Jesus to rescue us from this place of laments, this place of darkness
• Jesus didn’t just come die on the cross and rise again and ascend into heaven and now He’s done.
• Jesus promised that He would return, return to take us to be with Him forever, return to give us eternal life.
• So we’re still living in Advent times—always.
• We’re still living in Advent times when we’re waiting for Jesus to return, waiting for Jesus to restore us, to save us, to rescue us, to bring us to be with Him forever.
• We have the promise that through faith we will have eternal life. Through believing in Jesus, through believing that He died and rose again, through believing that He is our Savior, we have the promise of eternal life.
• But now we wait.

• And while we wait, we live through darkness and laments.
• We live through sadness, despair, fights, war. . .

• But we can take those things to God, put them at His feet at the altar.
• We can leave our laments with God.
• We can ask God to walk with us through the darkness.
• And He promises that He hears our cries and will be with us through all things.

• So this Advent season, there’s no reason to box up your laments, to box ‘em up and tape it shut and shove it into a corner.
• Instead, bring those laments to God, bring them to the altar
• You can bring them to God by praying—talking to God very frankly about what’s going on in your heart.
• You can bring your laments to God by singing to God in worship during Advent, letting the hymns and the Scriptures call to mind your laments, and bring them to God in your worship of Him.
• You can bring your laments to God by talking to another Christian—talking very frankly about your laments and asking that person to pray for you.
• And if you’re having trouble imagining bringing your laments to God, if this idea is a challenge to you, please come and talk to me. That’s why I’m here. Sometimes people think I’m too busy to hear your concerns and talk to you, but that’s why I’m here. So if it would be helpful to talk about your laments with me, call me or email me or Facebook me. Let’s find a time to take your laments to God.

• And when you’re talking to me or when you’re talking to another Christian or when you’re singing the hymns or when you’re praying to God, use the words of Psalm 80, the words that get the laments off the shelf and bring them to God.
• Psalm 80 calls on God to act: “Restore us.”
• God will not go quietly into the Christmas celebration as if that was enough; instead Psalm 80 says: “Save us.”
• It’s not about the glow of Christmas lights, but instead Psalm 80 pleads for God’s benediction: “Make your face shine upon us.”

• The Lord hears your prayers—the prayers that echo the words of Psalm 80:
• Restore us, O God Almighty;
make your face shine upon us,
that we may be saved.

• Come, Lord Jesus, come and restore us.
• The Father shines His face upon you
• You are saved from your laments.
• You have eternal life in Jesus.
• Even so, Come, Lord Jesus, come and restore us!

• Get box back out from under the altar.
• As I name these laments again, silently name your laments before God. Name your laments and see that you don’t need to box them up and hide them.
• You can name your laments and bring them to the altar, you can bring them to God.
• Sadness, grief, despair, fights, war, shame, hurtful words, hurtful actions, sickness, death, loss, pain.

 
• Close box and put it under the altar again.
• God hears your cries.
• God will restore you from your lament.
• Even as you wait in this Advent life, God promises to send Christ again to bring you to eternal life.
• As you wait, as you lament, know that the Lord hears your cries, hears your prayers, takes your laments to heart, and sends you a comfort by His Holy Spirit—a comfort that goes beyond words and understand, a comfort that gives us strength in the darkest of days.

• And God promises through Jesus Christ that He will indeed make His face shine upon us.
• He will look upon us with His grace and comfort and mercy and forgiveness and love.
• He will show us His great warmth and bring us through this lament and bring us to eternal life.

Psalm 67 - "Benediction"

This Thanksgiving Eve sermon took the form of a poem compiled and edited from various sources. You can view the sermon in its entirety by clicking here.

Malachi 3:6-12 - “Principles of Giving”

Excel in the Grace of Giving (Week 3)
Sunday, November 20, 2011

• I’ve been making a lot of phone calls lately, trying to check in on people who we have listed as members but maybe who haven’t been in worship for a while, a long while.
• Now when I’m not talking to voicemail, every once in a while I actually get to talk to a real, live person, and I explain why I’m calling.
• I’m Pastor Squires, been making my way through the membership lists, calling people that maybe I haven’t met yet. I’m calling you because you haven’t been in worship for a while, and I’m wondering if there’s any way I can be supporting you in your spiritual life.
• The responses to that opening are varied, but sometimes I get this response: “I know I should be in church. I should really get back there.”
• It makes me cringe.
• Why would someone saying that they should be in church make me cringe?
• Because it sounds like it’s just a duty, it’s just a requirement, it’s just a hoop to jump through, it’s just an obligation.
• It makes me cringe, because I’m not just calling, hoping that the person will come to church once in a while.
• I’m calling to check on the person’s spiritual life.
• It’s not just about showing up for worship a few times.
• It’s about what’s going on in the heart.
• It’s about a heart relationship with the Lord.
• That’s the principle behind calling people: we want people to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

• That principle also comes into play today when we’re talking about stewardship.
• Stewardship is about the heart.
• It’s about a relationship with Jesus.
• People think that the pastor’s just talking about money because the congregation needs more money.
• That makes me cringe.
• It makes me cringe, because I’m not talking about money just so that you’ll give to church once in a while.
• It makes me cringe like I used to cringe when I used to know a member of a church who never went to worship but every 3 months would stop by to drop off his 3 months of accumulated offering envelopes. That man had no interest in worship, no interest even in meeting me as the pastor there. It didn’t appear to be about a relationship with Jesus; it only appeared to be about some kind of obligation. It made me cringe.
• It made me cringe, because I wanted that man to have a relationship with Jesus. I should’ve given his offering envelopes back to him, because really I didn’t want his money if it was just to fulfill some obligation that didn’t have anything to do with the rest of his life.
• So in talking about stewardship, in talking about money, it’s not just about giving offering a few times.
• It’s about what’s going in the heart.
• It’s about the heart relationship with the Lord.
• That’s the principle behind stewardship: we want people to have a relationship with Jesus Christ—a relationship that spills out into everything that we do in our lives—including how we use our money.


• Malachi the prophet sent to the people who lived in the days after the Babylonian Exile.
• These were the days when the temple had been rebuilt, but it wasn’t nearly the grand structure that Solomon had made generations before, the temple that had been destroyed by the Babylonians.
• These are the days when the people had been brought back from exile, but when Jerusalem was still ruled by a foreign empire, taxed heavily, and not coming into the prosperity that everyone had imagined would come for God’s people.
• Malachi was sent to bring God’s Word to a grumbling people, a people who still hadn’t seen the glorious promises of the earlier prophets be fulfilled.
• People were more interested in making a good living than in following the commandments of God, especially commandments like bringing sacrifices to the temple and offering their tithes, ten percent of their livelihood given to the temple.
• People ignored God’s regulations and practiced idolatry. They did not pay attention to God’s command to love others and act justly.
• So when Malachi brings up the tithe, he’s not bringing that up because that’s the only problem.
• No, there’s a deeper problem, a spiritual problem, a problem of disobedience, a problem of not trusting in the Lord, a reluctance to trust the Lord completely
• The people were robbing God of the full tithe, because their hearts were in the wrong place, their hearts were only partially turned towards the Lord
• It’s about the heart, a relationship with the Lord.
• The lack of bringing the tithe to the temple storehouse, that’s a symptom of a spiritual problem that needs to be confessed and forgiven.
• In fact, there were those who heard Malachi that day, those who feared the Lord, who believed and honored the Lord, and they were cut to the quick, they were cut to the heart, and the Lord saw that.
• He promised that day that they would be forgiven, they would be brought into His loving presence in His kingdom.
• It’s about the heart, and God comes to heal the heart.

• And that promise comes fully true in Jesus, as He comes to bring forgiveness to the people,
• as He comes to restore our hearts, as He comes to bring us sinners into His kingdom.
• It’s about the heart, and Christ has done something about the heart. He’s forgiven and healed us.
• The principle behind all of this stewardship talk is that we want you to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
• But your relationship isn’t dependent on your stewardship.
• Your relationship with Christ is dependent on what Christ has done in your life, the faith He works in your heart by His Holy Spirit.

• But today as we wrap up our stewardship emphasis, as we bring our commitment cards forward today, I do want to mention the mechanics of tithing, because I want you to tithe, to give a percentage of your income to the Lord.
• But as I talk about those mechanics of giving, I don’t want you to lose sight of the fact that it’s about a relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s about the response of your actions to the love and grace that Jesus has already poured out into your life.
• I’m not talking about the mechanics of giving just so that you’ll give to the church once in a while.
• I’m talking about the mechanics of giving because it’s about how your faith in Jesus transforms your entire life—including how you use the money that you’ve been given as a gift from God.
• Don’t make me cringe and just drop off your offering envelope and think that’s the only thing I want.
• Above all else, I want you to continue in your relationship with Jesus Christ, and I want His love, grace, and forgiveness to fully transform your life.

• Let’s say there’s someone who refuses to give anything to the church. I’d love to talk to that person.
• But we’d only talk about giving as a symptom, a symptom that might be signaling that there’s something else going on in your faith life.
• Why are you refusing to give to the church?
• That’s really what Malachi was doing by bringing up the tithe. He was concerned about the people’s relationship with God, and the lack of tithing was a signal that something much more serious was going on, serious trouble in their faith.
• Like when I call people who haven’t been in church for a while, the real conversation isn’t about their action or lack of action. The real conversation that I want to have is: how’s your faith in Jesus?

• So stewardship, it’s about the heart.
• It’s about a relationship with Jesus.
 
• That said, do I want you to tithe? Do I want you to give ten percent of your income to the work of the Lord here and in other places? Yes.
• I want you to figure out a percentage you’re going to give to the Lord, and stick with that percentage throughout the year
• I want you to see that the Lord will bless your dedication to giving to Him, bless you in ways you may not imagine, ways that go beyond material things, bless you in spiritual ways
• I want you to be regular givers.
• I want you to be in the habit of giving to the congregation and other ministries.
• Some people tithe from their income before taxes; some people tithe from their income after taxes.
That decision, I feel, is up to you.
The point is, give regularly, give to God first, live on the rest of what He provides for you.

• A few years ago a study was done in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod about congregation members and their attitudes about giving to the Church.
• It was found that three-fourths of people do not realize that their pastors favor giving and tithing.
• Three-fourths of the people don’t realize that the pastor believes that people ought to give to God and tithe from their income
• In other words, the pastors believe something about giving and stewardship, but the congregations aren’t picking up on the message.

 
• So let me be clear:
• I believe you ought to give to the Lord.
• I believe in tithing, giving ten percent to the work of God in the world.
• I agree with Malachi that if we short-change God then we are robbing Him.
• I agree with the very direct words of Malachi:
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.
Bring the whole tithe into the congregation and other God-serving agencies.
• But I also believe that tithing is something we work towards, that we look for ways to grow in our giving, that we begin with a percentage and then work towards giving ten percent.

• But now that I’ve been clear about that, let me be very clear about something else:
• I want you to have a relationship with Jesus.
• My first concern is your relationship with Jesus.
• If you’re not giving to the Lord, my concern isn’t about getting your money.
• My first and foremost concern is: how’s your faith in Jesus?

• If you feel like you’re struggling in your faith, if you feel like you have symptoms of a struggling faith,
• then praise God that you’re here. Praise God that you’re here and receiving His Word of forgiveness and grace in Jesus Christ.
• Let’s say all of this stewardship talk is making you wonder about your spiritual health—well, then you’re getting to the heart of the issue.
• It’s not about pulling out an extra $20 bill from your wallet today.
• It’s about recognizing that God has called you into a beautiful relationship with Him, a relationship that gives you the sure promise of eternal life, a relationship that can flow into the rest of your life.
• Let’s say all of this stewardship talk is making you realize how much you’re struggling in your faith today, struggling to remain focused on Jesus.
• Well, praise God that you’re here. Praise God that you’re getting to the heart of the matter.
• Praise God that you’re here to receive the gift of Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, the body and blood for the strengthening of your faith.
• Praise God that He has done everything necessary to bring you into a right relationship with Him.
• Praise God that stewardship can be a response to that right relationship, not a way of proving yourself or making yourself right, but that stewardship can be a reflection of the loving relationship you have with God through what Jesus did on the cross and in His resurrection.
• Praise God that you’ve gotten to the heart of the matter today, that stewardship talk has gotten you thinking about your faith in Jesus.
• And praise God that when you think about your faith in Jesus, you get to hear again that it’s all about what Jesus has done for you, it’s all about the fact that Jesus has died for you and forgives you and calls you into a beautiful relationship with Him.
• Praise God that you can bring your commitment card forward today as a response to your faith in Jesus.
• Praise God that it’s not just about dropping off some money at church.
• Praise God that first and foremost you have a relationship with Jesus.

1 Chronicles 29:10-17 - “Outrageous Giving”

Excel in the Grace of Giving (Week 2)
Sunday, November 13, 2011

• Children’s Message: Bring up children and explain we’re going to get the adults moving, too, to help everyone think about who God has made them to be
• Ask adults to get up and move to one of the spots on the edge of the seating area—Worship/Music, Administration/Leadership, Education/Discipleship, Fellowship, Community Service, Maintenance/Hands On Labor
• Encourage people to move as they are able, to locate their most natural talent area, and then meet others who are there.
• PRAY
• Send adults back to their seats; then children.
• Ask people to turn to Old Testament reading.

• “Praise be to you, O LORD,
God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.
12 Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.
13 Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name.
• In our Old Testament reading from 1 Chronicles, King David is praising God, especially because the people had just gathered a tremendous offering to make the temple.
• But on this day when we’re thinking about Time and Talents, I want you to see how these words could also apply to the giving of our time and talents.
• “Praise be to you, O LORD,
God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
EVERYTHING WE HAVE IS FROM GOD—INCLUDING OUR TIME AND TALENTS, OUR ABILITIES, OUR PASSIONS.
• Everything we have is a gift from God.
• Jesus comes into our lives to connect us with those gifts through His Holy Spirit.

• Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.
GOD IS HEAD OVER ALL THINGS, INCLUDING OUR TIME AND TALENTS, LEADING US TO USE THOSE THINGS FOR HIS KINGDOM.
• Last week we talked about how God invites us to be His coworkers in bringing His blessings to our neighbors, the people around us.
• Well, this is true with time and talents as much as our money. We’re invited to share our time and talents for the sake of building up God’s kingdom, building up His people, bringing blessings to others, bringing Jesus to others.
• 12 Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
HERE DAVID MENTIONS SPECIFICALLY THAT HE’S PRAISING GOD ABOUT TREASURES, BUT NOTICE WHAT HE SAYS NEXT:
• In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.
ALL STRENGTH AND POWER IS IN GOD.
HE IS THE ONE WHO LIFTS US UP AND GIVES US STRENGTH.
• God giving us strength; strengthen us through Jesus Christ—that goes beyond giving us money, treasures. That includes giving us our strengths—our talents, our abilities, our passions.
• And it includes giving us our time—a very precious commodity, the time to enjoy His blessings, the time to serve Him and serve others.
• God gives you your time and talents, and that’s what we celebrate today.

• So everything we have is from God.
• God is head over all that we have.
• God lifts us up and gives us strength.
• What’s the result of that?
• Well, according to David’s prayer, the result is:
13 Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name.
WHEN WE REALIZE THE GIFTS THAT GOD HAS GIVEN US, OUR RESPONSE IS TO PRAISE HIS GLORIOUS NAME, PRAISE HIM FOR WHAT HE’S DOING IN US AND THROUGH US.


• Because of reFocusing, the process that the congregation is involved in to discover our individual and congregational calling in the Lord, because of reFocusing, and because of other things I see happening at Bethel, I really sense that we’re in a season of discovering who we are in the Lord.
• That’s why I wanted to have you get up and move today.
• That’s why I wanted you to meet others who share a similar talent or passion.
• That’s why I want those words of David to be on your lips—God, we give You thanks and praise Your glorious Name.
• I really sense that God is calling us together to serve Him, helping us to see ways to serve Him and serve each other and serve our community.
• I really sense God’s Spirit moving in this place to call us to recognize the gifts that He’s placed in us, gifts that He desires to use for His kingdom, His kingdom of grace, love, and forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

• Now I don’t say this lightly.
• I don’t always talk in these ways—about sensing God’s presence and movement.
• I’m not saying this just because it works for the sermon.
• I’m saying this because looking at what’s happening, hearing what people are saying, seeing people’s passions starting to bubble up and come together—well, I’m very confident that God’s moving in this place
• I believe so much that Jesus has loved us and forgiven us, but that He’s also sending us, calling us to serve Him and serve others.

• And this train’s leaving the station.
• Things are happening; things are beginning to move forward.
• I want you to be on this train.
• I want you to be recognizing your talents and how they could fit into serving God, serving Bethel, and serving our community.
• I want you to be on this train.
• I want you to be rejoicing in how God lifts you up and strengthens you.
• I want you to see that everything you have is a gift from God for the sake of His kingdom.
• I want you to be on this train.
• I want you to serve Him with your time and talents.

• Now next week we’ll talk more directly about how we use our money, how giving to the Church serves our neighbors.
• Usually that seems like the biggest step, it seems like a big step to speak directly about money.

• But honestly, today’s the big step, a big step in telling you that this train’s leaving the station, that I want you on this train, that I want you to serve Him with your time and talents, that I want you to see ways in which God is calling you to serve Him, serve Bethel, serve the community.
• It’s a big step, because I’m asking for your time and talents, I’m asking you to make a commitment to serve, I’m asking you to step out of your comfort zone, I’m asking you to serve Him beyond one hour on Sunday, I’m asking for you to see the countless ways that God has blessed you in how He has made you.
• It’s a big step. . .
• But I so much want to see all of you recognize the tremendous people that God has made you to be.
• I want you to see that God can use you in many different ways.
• I want to have spiritual conversations with each one of you—conversations which call us to remember that God made you, God is shaping you, God can use you for the sake of His forgiveness and love in Jesus Christ.
• You are a gift from God.
• May you rejoice in that!
• I want you to be on this train—this train of God’s forgiven people responding to Him by serving others.

• Now we’re going to give you a few minutes to fill out the Time and Talent Survey.
• Now you don’t have to only mark down things under the category that you went to when we walked around. We’ve all got many different kinds of talents and passions.
• But I also don’t want you to mark down things just because you think you should. That’s following some kind of obligation; that’s not following your passion.
• Mark down the things that seem to grab your attention right away—even if it’s something you’ve never done before. Mark down the things where you feel a passion welling up inside of you, an interest that goes a little deeper, things that strike a chord with you.
• If you’re visiting with us, use this time to think about how you might serve in your congregation or see the ways you could serve at Bethel.
• As you finish, pray for Bethel during these minutes.
• Close the sermon by praying for the congregation before giving them a few minutes to fill out the Time & Talent survey. Give to ushers when you finish.

2 Corinthians 8:1-15 - “Why Christians Give”

Excel in the Grace of Giving (Week 1)
Sunday, November 6, 2011

• Set up half of the pipe, send coins down
• This is God sending down His blessings to us and to others
• Except that’s not quite the whole picture

• Ask for a volunteer
• You be God. (give them the jar of coins)
• Set up top half of the pipe with Y-joint in middle
• Meanwhile, you give me some blessings and encourage me to share those blessings with others (Volunteer pours some coins into a smaller jar)
• So God keeps sharing blessings with people (Volunteer keeps putting coins in the top of the pipe)
• Meanwhile, I as His child am encouraged to share blessings with others also (start putting coins in middle of the pipe through Y-joint)
• The blessings of God come to us by grace, by gift
• We are companions of this grace
• We are coworkers, encouraged by God to join Him in this sharing with others.

• How many of you are thinking putting coins down this pipe looks fun? Oddly relaxing?
• That’s the kid in us.
• And that’s kind of how stewardship can work: God shows us what He’s doing—then invites us to try it out
• (Volunteer sits down)

• Borrowing a phrase from another preacher: “The stewardship invitation is not about moral obligation to pay God back or even to express gratitude, but to engage with God in love in the world” (William Loader).
• I think it still has to do with returning a portion of what God has given us.
• I think our offerings are still a way of expressing thanks to God.
• But the whole idea of being companions of God in the grace of giving—that idea is revolutionary to me.
• It’s amazing to think that God is inviting us to be stewards of our time, talent, and treasure, invites us to be good stewards, because He wants us to be His coworkers in sharing blessings with the world
• So it’s really about our neighbor, about taking part in God blessing our neighbors, blessing them materially, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

• Notice in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, notice how Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to give to the church in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was going through a famine, and so Paul had been raising funds from all of the churches in the region, raising support for the Christians in Jerusalem.
• Notice how Paul spurs on the Corinthians by telling them about the faith and action of another church—the Macedonians. The Macedonians who begged to be a part of the collection for Jerusalem. The Macedonians who saw that they could be a part of something bigger than themselves, they could be part of what God was doing for the Church—big “C,” the Church of all the brothers and sisters in the faith.
• Stewardship was about loving their neighbors.
• Using the example of the Macedonians, Paul is urging the Corinthians to follow through on the commitment they had already made to Jerusalem, encouraging them to finish the collection and send it to Jerusalem.
• He commends them, compliments them, recognizes how the Spirit of God was already working in them through their faith, speech, knowledge, complete earnestness and love. The Corinthians were excelling in all of these ways.
• But now Paul encourages them to also excel in the grace of giving, the gift of giving, to excel in being God’s companions in passing on blessings to others.
• In other words, excel at putting coins in the pipe.

• So according to this pipe image, why do Christians give?
• Do we give because that makes us better Christians?
• No, God’s already delivering the blessing of salvation! That blessing comes from Him.
• It’s the grace of giving. It’s God’s graciousness.
It’s always about the gifts from God.
• So do we give because we need to make up the difference between what God provides and what’s still needed?
• No, because notice that God continues to give blessings whether or not I take part.
• I mean, notice what Paul is saying to the Corinthians. He’s saying that the Macedonians and others are already giving to support Jerusalem. He doesn’t lay it on the Corinthians that they make or break the operation.

 
• So according to this image of the coins in the pipe, why do Christians give?
• It’s fun.
• We’re being invited to be a part of something fun, beautiful, incredible that God is already doing.
• We’re being invited to be God’s companions.
• We’re being invited to be a part of God’s mission to love all people.
• We’re being transformed into people who are part of God’s mission.

• Now if I keep my jar of coins to myself, if I decide that
I’m not going share, I’m not going to join in the game,
I suppose there’s a sin there.
• I might be selfish, greedy, not trusting God
• There could be a lot of sinful reasons for holding onto the coins in my jar.
• For those sinful reasons, I need God to shower His forgiveness on me.
• And if this talk about stewardship has conjured up guilt for you, if you’re thinking about some sin that stands between you and sharing with others, well, then be assured that there is plenty of forgiveness for you in Jesus Christ.
• Jesus Christ died for all of our sins—even our sin of keeping the coins to ourselves, keeping His blessings to ourselves.
• Jesus Christ conquered death and rose again so that there’s this gift of salvation, there’s a gift of eternal life that we don’t need to earn.
• It’s a free gift.
• And being a good steward doesn’t earn you a bigger piece of eternity. You’ve got eternity through what Jesus did and what Jesus is doing in you.

• But when we think about the Corinthians keeping their coins to themselves, Paul isn’t condemning them. In fact, Paul even says, “I am not commanding you.” This isn’t Paul shaking his finger at those Corinthians.
• No, what we see Paul saying in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 is that the Corinthians are missing out if they keep their coins to themselves, they’re missing out on being a part of what God is doing
• They’re missing out on being a part of that movement in the Church—big “C” church—the movement bringing funds from all over the region to support the Christians in Jerusalem. If they keep their coins to themselves, they won’t be a part of this incredible thing, this thing that God’s invited them to be a part of.
• They won’t get the fun of putting the coins down the pipe.

• That’s the same for us—God doesn’t want us to miss out on the fun of sending coins down the pipe, sending on blessings to our neighbors, doesn’t want us to miss out on being His companions in this grace, His gifts to His people.

• How many of you have heard of Compassion International?
• Support children around the world so that they get food, clothes, and education.
• You sign up to sponsor a child, pledging to sponsor them hopefully until they graduate from the program
• Well, a youth group I worked with heard about Compassion at a Christian concert, they got excited about it, and they asked me, “Pastor, can we sponsor a child? You know, the youth group together sponsor a child.”
• They pleaded with me that evening, and maybe against my better judgment, I said they could sign up. They assured me that they would take offering each week at Bible study and that’s how they’d come up with the money each month—because I explained that the funds couldn’t come from the church budget. It had to be something they did as the youth.
• Well, a couple of months passed, we were paying the pledge each month—out of the youth budget
• The offering plate would get passed, but not much was going in it—a few dollars, a few coins, and a couple of pencils since someone thought it was pencil basket.
• Finally, I had to sit down with a few key youth who had asked to do this, and I said that they’d either have to get the youth to donate more or they were going to have to stop sponsoring a child.
• After a couple more weeks of no one bringing offering, they decided that they’d have to stop.
• I told them that they’d have to write the letter to Compassion and explain that we couldn’t sponsor this child anymore.
• That was a tough lesson for those youth, but it was about following through on their commitment, following through on their pledge.

• That’s kind of what is happening here in 2 Corinthians—Paul is having to tell those Corinthian Christians that they either needed to follow through on their commitment to the Jerusalem church or that they should write a letter saying they couldn’t keep their pledge.
• Except Paul does it all much more graciously than I did with those youth.
• With the youth, I kind of laid out the Law, showed them how they weren’t meeting their commitment, told them to go out and drum up more support.
• Paul, though, paints a picture for the Corinthians. Paints a picture for them to see what it means to be companions of God, what it means to join God in loving others.
• Paul paints a picture like the pipe
• OK, so he doesn’t talk about PVC pipe and coins, but the principle is there—join in what God is already doing, be God’s partner, excel in the grace of giving

• Now I’m probably still stumbling over how best to talk about stewardship.
• I’m still learning when it comes to talking about giving and blessing others and the needs of the congregation and the chance to participate in the mission of the Church through our giving
• I’m still learning

• But I’ll tell you what: the image of getting to put coins down a pipe that God’s already using, the image of getting to join God’s work, that image that arises out of Paul’s words to the Corinthians, that image speaks volumes to me
• It speaks volumes, because it centers it back on God
• It centers it back on what God is already doing in our lives through Christ, already delivering blessings

• (Volunteer comes back up, add second volunteer)
• Remember: God’s sharing blessings with us constantly
• We’ve been invited to be a part of that process
• We can share from our coin jars, we can share with our neighbors
• But if we stop, if we hold onto our blessings—God’s still blessing others
• He doesn’t stop if we stop
• He’ll simply look for other ways to deliver blessings
• He’ll invite others to be His companions
• meanwhile, meanwhile—we’re missing out on the fun

• So excel in the grace of giving
• Join the fun (2nd volunteer starts putting coins down Y-joint)
• Excel in the grace of giving

• Join the fun of sharing your blessings so that others are blessed materially, physically, emotionally, and spiritually
• What Paul said about the Corinthians I would say about you here at Bethel: you excel in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us
• Excel now also in the grace of giving
• Celebrate that you’re God’s partners, companions, coworkers
• See yourselves right here at the Y-joint, right here getting to step and send your blessings onto others