Cultivating Stewardship

SERMON: 2014-10-12--cs1403--cultivating-stewardship-part-3 SOURCE DURATION: 00:44:46.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The entire provided transcript appears to be a continuous sermon/teaching talk. Segment [0] starts the discourse, and segment [488] concludes the main theological exposition. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- So at the stage for the message this morning, here's a drama team with a drama called The Offering. Please pay attention to it. If I'm not supposed to feel pressured into participating in this part of the service, why do they give me a golden plate? Is that a kind of a hint to put in a lot of money or something? I guess I could contribute something. The church has to pay its bills too. I do understand that. Yeah, those chairs. I like them. They are very comfortable. And they serve coffee every week for free. I even saw a debit machine in the foyer and then all those lights all the time in here. Boy, that stuff ain't cheap. But I bet you when you become a member, they pressure you all the time to give all the time too. This place must be rolling in the dough. And what would my few bucks do anyway? Would it make a difference? Besides, you don't know where your money goes to. At least when I take care of my own money, I know where it's going to. So God, I hope you understand, I will pass this week. At a looks of it, when I compare this place to my own living room, I need the money a lot more than they do. Ah, the offering. What a wonderful time in the service. There's something about being able to contribute to what's going on here. To be part, a very, very large part in funding this great work of God. I amaze myself with my generosity and I just know I could be such an example to other people. Of course, how can I be an example if they don't know what I'm doing? I certainly wouldn't want to tell anybody what I give. That would be too obvious. Of course, if I don't fold my check, the people next to me could see it. Ah, maybe I should put it on the rim, then the whole row can see it. Oh, but it might fall off. Hey, that'd be perfect. Then all the people in the row in front who pick it up could see it too. And they'd have to pass it down the row to catch up with the plate. And then many more people could see it and be inspired. And if it didn't make it to the end in time, then the person at the end of the row would have to stand up and call out to the usher, "Oh, sir, sir, there's a very large check here from William Tyler, 7432 Winfield Lane that I'm sure the church couldn't do without this week." The pastor would see what was going on, and he'd probably ask me to come up to the front and make me honorary chair of council. Ah, it's so good to be a humble servant in God's hand. Oh, no. The offering plate. I hate this part of the service. Feed me. I bet everyone is watching me. I bet the couple behind me is peering over my shoulder to see what I'm putting in. Stop looking at-- Oh, I'm in the back row. Why am I so paranoid? What is the big deal about giving to the Lord? I know I should give more. Why am I so riddled with guilt? Why am I so riddled with guilt just because I didn't give anything that time two years ago that I was on vacation? All right, Lord, I'll double what I give today. No, no, no, I'll triple what I give today. There, is that good? What do you expect from me? Fine. Then take all my credit cards. What? Yes, you caught me red-handed. I didn't take out the trash. I didn't separate the recycling. Just take my whole wallet. And yes, I did drive 10 miles over the speed limit to get here today. Take my shoes. I promise I'll walk all the way home on the gravel just to show you how sorry I am. Is that enough, God? I hate this part of the service. Really? Well, Lord, here it is, my way of saying thanks. It's been a good week. Got a good job, food on the table, nice warm house, nice hot shower every day, except for Thursday. Kids got up early. Anyways, all in all, Lord, you know who I am. Every Sunday, working tirelessly at my little business, what a prison. But here I am. And now in a tangible way, I can give back to you. I can show you how much you appreciate me, but I can appreciate you. I can give back, Lord. So now that I can give back, I kind of forgot my wallet in the car. Sure you did. Great job. Thank you, drama team. I think you'll agree with me that that skit captures to some degree the ambivalence that many of us feel or certainly have felt when it comes to putting money in the offering plate. On the one hand, we know that everything we have and are belongs to the Lord and that he asks us to return to him the first fruits of all that he has given us. And if you think about it, even if we tithe the full 10 percent, which most people don't, by the way, the average tithe in North America for a churchgoer is 2.3 percent. But even if we tithe the full 10 percent, we still have 90 percent that he allows us to hold on to, which I think is a pretty generous deal. But at the same time, we're keenly aware when we put money into the plate what that money could buy for us. Things like paying down the mortgage, things like reducing our debt load or buying the nice things of life or trying to secure our future, hence the ambivalence to giving for many even of God's people. I will never forget how this first came home to me as a youngster going to college. I recall it was the Thanksgiving season. I was attending, I believe, at college the American Thanksgiving worship service when the collection plate was coming around, and I felt the stirring of the Holy Spirit to reach into my wallet and put the remaining 20 that I had in my wallet on the collection plate. And I remember the struggle that that proved to be. You don't know the power that money has over you or the love of money has over you until you are being asked to part with it. And so as the plate was coming around and getting closer, I had all these arguments, pretty much the ones you heard here going through my mind saying, well, I could buy this or I could spend it on this, yet always being convicted the Holy Spirit was looking for me to put it on the plate. And thank God, by the time the plate got to me, I was able to lay it on the plate, and that was really kind of ironic because it wasn't my money anyway. It was my, you know, my family was putting me through college and I could just ride home and get more, but I thought it was mine and I wanted to spend it the way that I wanted to spend it. And I remember that so vividly and, you know, since that time, Michelle and I have given much larger sums to the work of the Lord, as you can imagine. And most of the time we're able to do that as cheerful givers. But I would admit that even today, there are times when the Lord is tugging at something. I'm still asking myself the question, wouldn't I rather spend this on something else? Now, maybe you're so spiritual, that's never an issue for you. I'm just telling you that's where I find myself and I suspect where most of us find ourselves periodically. And that is why these Macedonian Christians and their example are so outstanding in my thinking. Listen again, and we read this last week, but listen again to how the apostle Paul puts it when he writes to the Corinthian church using the example of the Macedonians. Here is what he says, "And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity, for I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability, entirely on their own. They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints." And he's talking here, of course, about the offering that he has taken, taking among the Gentile churches for the mother church in Jerusalem where the believers, through persecution and economic situations, have found themselves in dire straits. And so he's been encouraging these new believers to contribute. And what amazes him about the churches in Macedonia is that they are not only giving as they are able, which is really all that he or God ever asks of people, but he says they give more than what they are able to give normally, and they go beyond that. They are actually begging him for the privilege of contributing to the needs of the saints. And I said this last week, blows me out of the water to imagine that God's people can be so anxious, even in their poverty, to sacrifice on behalf of others, that they are actually pleading for the privilege of being allowed to join in as opposed to the plea going the other way, "Let me squeeze you a little more so that I can get more out of you." It is no wonder, then, that Paul, writing the letter to this Philippian church, just exudes love and affection for this community because they, as we'll see later on, Lord willing, in the book of Acts, they are the first church in Macedonia to be established in Acts chapter 16. From there on, he goes to Thessalonica, and from there on, he goes to Berea. And from the very beginning, it was in their DNA to be generous. Listen again to these words that we read a few moments ago, Philippians 4, 15, and 16. "Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when they first became Christians, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only. For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need." So from their generosity, the Thessalonian church learned generosity, and from that, it spread on to Berea, so that right into the Corinthians, he say, "The churches in Macedonia were so anxious to give, they gave not only out of their poverty, but they gave beyond what normally they were capable of giving." And so it's a very legitimate question to ask then, what made these very poverty-stricken believers in the Greek province of Macedonia so incredibly generous? Well, Paul goes on to explain back in his letter to the Corinthians, chapter 8, verse 5, and here's what he says, listen carefully, "They did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and then to us in keeping with God's will." Let me talk about that verse a little bit, beginning with that first phrase, "They did not do as we expected." What does he mean? Well, what did he expect? Well, he didn't expect much of anything. He knew they were poor. He expected, I suspect, that they would say, "Well, you know, this is the best we can do," and he would have been satisfied with that. He didn't expect a lot from congregations that were this poor and that were suffering persecution. But instead, they were extremely generous, and so he says, "They did not do as we expected." They didn't squawk. They didn't protest. They didn't plead their poverty. But he says instead, they did two things. They gave themselves first to the Lord, and then he says they gave themselves to us in keeping with God's will. And here you have the key to their biblical generosity. Number one, they gave themselves to God, and number two, they gave themselves to those who represented God. Let me talk very briefly about each of those. They gave themselves to God. What does that mean? Well, in my book, it means at least two things. It means they acknowledged, first of all, God's ownership of them. In terms of what we were talking about last week, they understood that they were stewards, not owners, body, soul, and spirit. They and all they had belonged to God. They were in covenant relationship with God, and under the terms of that covenant, they knew that God would provide all of their needs according to his riches and glory in Christ and Jesus, and they in turn were responsible for stewarding what God had given to them. They had given themselves to God. But secondly, what it means is they committed themselves to the purposes of God for the world, because as you've heard us talk about many times around here, God has a purpose in the world, which is to build his kingdom. That is to say, he wants to redeem people from Satan's power and the power of the lie, reconcile them to himself through the cross of Jesus, teaching people to observe whatever God has commanded so that they can learn to love God above all, love their neighbor as themselves all over the world throughout the course of history. As the gospel is being proclaimed, there are people who hear that word of life. They respond to it, they come to faith in Jesus, they begin living for God, they begin running their lives in ways that honor God, and one day when history ends, the kingdom of God will be established in all of its fullness from one end of the universe to the other. Every knee will bow and every tongue will again confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Isn't that something to contemplate? You and I, we have the first fruits of that, and so to give yourself to the Lord is not only to say, Lord, everything that I am and everything that I have is at your disposal. You can use it whichever way you want it, but it is also to say, Lord, I am committing all that I am and all of my resources to building your kingdom. My hope, my dream, my passion then becomes, Lord, hasten the day when every knee will bow. I give myself to seeing people come to faith. I give myself to seeing people restored. I give myself to seeing people come alive in the power of the Holy Spirit. I give myself to wanting to build the Church of God so that God's glory may be shown through His people, however imperfectly, to the nations of the world, knowing that one day we're going to shine like stars in His crown for the glory of His name. So there's a principle there that I think is really important for us to lay hold of, and that is this. I don't believe that we will ever come close to matching the generosity of these Macedonian believers unless, like them, there is a time and a place in our lives where we take the hands off what we own and surrender it to Him and say, Lord, all that you give me and all that I have, I am setting aside for the service of Your kingdom. Now that doesn't mean God isn't going to leave us anything because that's always the fear. Well, He's going to take everything good away from me. No, later on we'll see that God gives us all good things to enjoy. He is not after robbing you or me. He's got enough, believe you me, but He is interested in teaching us that it is in surrender to His will that we discover the freedom that comes when He can pour out His blessings upon us. They gave themselves first to the Lord, but then it doesn't stop there, does it? There's a second thing that they did, and they committed themselves not only to the Lord, but also to those who represented Him. They did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will. There's a twofold commitment here. They committed themselves to the Lord and then they committed themselves to the apostles who were charged with carrying out the ministry of the Lord. I love the little story, priest, minister, and a rabbi. Those are always the great stories, aren't they? And they were having a conversation about how each of them decided how much they give to the Lord's work. And the priest says, it's really quite simple, he says, "I draw a small circle on the ground and then I throw my money up in the air and all the money that falls in the circle I give to God." The minister says, "Well, I draw a circle, too, except I draw a big circle on the ground. I throw my money up in the air and all the money that doesn't fall in the circle will fall outside the circle I give to God." Well, says the rabbi, "I don't draw a circle at all." He says, "I just throw my money up in the air and whatever God grabs, He can keep and the rest is mine." What's the point? Well, clearly, none of them is a particularly cheerful giver, but beyond that, the point is, of course, heaven doesn't run on cash and cash is not heaven's currency. God doesn't need your money or my money because there's nothing that He can do with it directly. He does, after all, own the cattle on a thousand hills, the gold in every mine, says scripture. What God is looking for is for our commitment to His work through the people who represent Him. And again, there's a principle there. I don't believe that we will ever cultivate generosity as sacrificial as that of the Macedonians, unless we not only commit all that we are and have to the purposes of God so that that becomes our priority, but we give that money, we make that same commitment to those who represent the Lord. And that's why many of us here not only give liberally to a variety of charities, but we also give liberally to the life of the congregation. Most of God's people agree that the first place that our generosity should express itself is in the context of the local church. Why? Because it is the church that Jesus is building. It is the community where He manifests Himself and where He shines His light, where He not only brings people to salvation but empowers them to go out into the world in order to make a huge difference. I love the old hymn, I love thy kingdom, Lord, the house of thine abode, the church our blessed Redeemer saved with His own precious blood. I love thy church, O God, her walls before thee stand, dear as the apple of thine eye, graven on thy hand; for her my tears shall fall, for her my prayers ascend, to her my cares and toils be given, till toils and cares shall end. When you invest who you are in terms of time, talent, and treasure, as so many of you do sacrificially and faithfully in building the local church, you are building the heart of God in the world because the church is the hope of the world. We are the ones who radiate the message of salvation because the healing of the nations is not going to come out of the UN, it's not going to come out of all the people who gather together at political tables to try to resolve impossible situations, it is ultimately going to come from the Lord Jesus through His people as they sacrificially live before Him and they present the opposite spirit to what you see in the world until Satan's kingdom comes flying to the ground and God's people get established as God's everlasting kingdom. That's what God's after, that's what you and I are a part of and that's worth our tears, that's worth our prayers, and that's worth our resources. We can never out give the Lord. All right, in the time that remains, I want to give you four biblical reasons why the apostle Paul in scripture is so excited about the generosity of the Macedonian believers. We'll try to be quick in this before we go into the pledging. Number one, generosity honors God. Listen again to how Paul puts it, "I have received full payment and even more." He is talking about the fact that he was in a difficult situation. The Philippians took note of his situation. They delegated one of their own, a man by the name of Epaphroditus and they brought a love offering to sustain Paul in a difficult situation. He said, "I am amply supplied now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent." Remember, these are poor people. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. Why is their sacrifice pleasing to God? Because when they sacrificially give of themselves as they are able and even beyond their ability, they are demonstrating the fruit of the gospel. They are demonstrating that God has become their father and that as his children, they want to share in his generosity. The whole purpose of the gospel, as you know, is to restore us to the image of God and our generosity reflects that and gives praise to God. Second Corinthians 9.13, "Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ." Generosity honors God because it demonstrates that Jesus did not die in vain. Number two, for your generosity and sharing with them the end of that verse and with everyone else, but number two, it helps people and it builds community. In their prayers for you, Second Corinthians 9.14, their hearts will go out to you because of their surpassing grace and God has given you. If ever this morning you have been on the receiving end of somebody's charity, charity freely given without any strings attached, you will know how that has bonded your heart to their hearts. You've heard me tell this before back in 1953 in the Netherlands, we lived in a part of the country where there was a huge flood and we had to leave our home for six weeks as I recall and the damage was in untold millions, number of people in our community, I believe 38 died in that particular flood. Nothing perhaps compared to some floods in some places in the world, but pretty disasters at the time and I remember that one of the Canadian cities and I think it was Montreal, but I'm not 100% sure, twinned with our community and brought resources to help us get back on our feet. I still can see all the boxes of sets of china for some reason that were supplied by that community to replace the loss that our community had experienced and I don't know, it does something to you when you're in need and somebody else steps into that need, it bonds your heart in ways that are just very honoring to the Lord. Perhaps you have experienced that in your own life as well. Number three, and we've talked about this before, but it's the biblical way to expand your resources. First we know well, remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Paul is very anxious for the Corinthians to understand this and so he doesn't quit. He goes on to say in verse 10, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. Listen carefully to what he says, you will be made rich in every way. Why? Not just to spend it on yourself, but that by your riches, you can abound in every good work. We need to get beyond a poverty mindset, no matter how difficult life is sometimes, and we need to walk in faith saying, God, you are a generous God. You want your people to be generous and so I'm going to step out in faith, whether with my time talent or my treasures, and I'm going to walk in faith believing that as I invest myself in the coming of your kingdom, as your Holy Spirit leads me for all the right reasons, you will multiply my resources for the glory of your name. I was profoundly moved some years ago when I read the story of Charles Mully, family, Mully Children's Family. Some of you will remember that back in 2009, the Mully, I can never remember, Mully Children's Family. It's an awkward phrase. I think they should name it something else, but they didn't ask me. They were here. Some of you remember when they were here, Charles Mully was abandoned by his parents at a very young age in Kenya, Africa, and proved to be quite the little scrapper and entrepreneur and invested himself in life and in business and made a lot of money when the Lord called him to sell everything that he had and to devote it to looking after orphans in Kenya. If you know that ministry, they've grown into looking after, they've resourced thousands upon thousands of kids that they now take through school at all levels, through college and university, and a lot of these kids owe their lives to this particular ministry. You may remember when they were here, and maybe you don't, but in the summer of 2009, there was an incredible drought in Kenya that was costing a lot of people's lives. For three years, by July of 2009, the fall rains had not come, and that spring, the spring rains had not come. Now, you've got to remember that the Mully Children's Family operation, feeding thousands upon thousands of kids, historically, get a lot of their income from the farm which they run. That year, their farm produce dropped from 40% of their usual income to 7% to 8%. And they lived with the incredible burden of how are we going to feed these thousands of children that we have? And not only that, but we've got this whole neighborhood around us where people are dying. And I could well imagine the temptation being, "Well, we better preserve the little that we have so that our own kids don't starve." Isn't that what you would do? It's not what they did. They said, "Our father is responsible for feeding our children. He has to supply our needs," and so you know what they did. They continued to feed the thousands and some kids of their own that they were responsible for, and throughout that period of drought, they made food available out of their scanty supply for 8,000 to 10,000 of their neighbors in that community. And they not only survived it, but they thrived until the rains came back, partly through the generosity of the Canadian people who had heard their plea. But I said, "What an example of what faith looks like." Because when you're that close to the edge, everything inside you says sowing your seed doesn't work, but they stepped out in faith and God honored it. So God looks for generosity because it honors him. It helps other people and it builds community. It's the biblical way to expand our resources rather than hoarding it. We share it. And then very quickly on this last one, but the one that I think is really fascinating, back to verse 19 there, Paul teaches the same thing, "My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." But number four, it's the only way that you can take your money with you. You've heard the story, two homeless men hanging out on the sidewalk, huge funeral procession goes by, obviously a very important and wealthy man. And one homeless man turns to the other and he says, "I wonder how much he left." And the other man, filled with wisdom really, said, "He left it all." Because nobody has ever seen a hearse with a U-haul behind it. You can't take it with you. And the riches of this present age cannot be taken with you into the next stage, which is why Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, "These words do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." What's a treasure? A treasure is something that you value. It is something that is important. And in the world, apart from God's grace, our treasure tends to be earthly things. Our health, our relationships, our possessions often focuses on a particular thing, maybe the car that I drive or the house that I live in or the boat that I covet or the clothes that I want to wear. And none of those things in themselves are wrong. I'll talk about that in just a moment. God says that He's given us richly all things to enjoy, never feel guilty for the fact that God gives you good things. But the biblical answer to earthly treasures that you have to leave behind is to transpose those treasures into eternal treasures where they will not rust and they will not corrode. So how do you take your money with you? Well Paul explains writing to Timothy, listen carefully to this, "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant, not to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." There you have it. God richly provides everything for our enjoyment. As I said, don't ever feel guilty for having good food on your table or nice clothes to wear or a decent house to live in. You are allowed to enjoy the blessings of God. Just don't be attached to them and don't make them an idol that you hold so tightly and closely that your security lies in that as opposed to God. Because now he goes on, "Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age so that they may take hold of life that is truly life." What is he saying? Every time you take earthly treasures, time talent or treasure, and you invest it in somebody else's life, you are laying up treasure in heaven. It's being charged to your account. So money that you give to bring somebody to the Lord, money that you give that reflects God's graciousness in your life that blesses somebody else, God takes note of that. And he adds it to your account in the life that is to come because it is an expression of your faith. And now when you get to the life that is to come, you have this broad foundation that demonstrates the fruit of grace in your life and you have now translated earthly treasures into eternal treasures. Does that make sense? Listen to how Paul puts it right into the Philippians. He says the same thing, not that I'm looking for a gift, because remember he says, "I've learned in whatever state I am to be content." I'm not looking for your gift, I'm not begging you to please look after me because God will look after me with or without you. But I'm looking for what may be credited to your account. Every time you and I take time, talent, and treasure that God has entrusted to us, having surrendered it to him, contributing it to the work of the kingdom, God takes note. He says that is the fruit of salvation, and I don't fully understand how it works, but it establishes a foundation in the future because believe it or not, we're all going to be judged by what we have done in the body, good or evil, and God is not so unjust as not to reward us for our faithfulness. Now that doesn't mean we give in order to bribe God, but we ought not to be more spiritual than what God is either, and if God says this lays up a foundation for the life that is to come, it's how you translate present riches into the eternal riches where moth or rust cannot consume. That makes sense, but it takes faith. It takes faith to believe that God is who he says that he is, that he will do what he [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:44:42.240; remove through 00:44:46.000] has said that he will do, and that your short-term loss will be offset by eternal gain. [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:44:46.000; resume after this marked segment]