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.