We serve a God of abundance and not a God of scarcity. Ours is the God who possesses the cattle on a thousand hills. He is not a dilettante deity with nothing in His hands; He is the God who flung the stars into space and who has made all things. All things are made by Him and all things are at His disposal. He gives His gifts in abundance to His people, and asks us to place these things into the service of His will. He does not force us; He does not threaten us. He simply asks us to trust Him to provide us with an abundant life, and out of faith to provide for His work. He is an abundant Lord, giving us an abundant life, and He wants from us an abundant church. We serve a God of abundance and not a God of scarcity.
Dr. Robert Jones was chairman of the Department of Religion at George Washington University. He was also a dedicated member of a Baptist church, and became a good friend of mine back in my campus ministry days. One day there erupted in the newspaper headlines a scandalous story about the pastor of the church which Dr. Jones attended. It was a story of infidelity, of lies, of deceit, of selfish greed, and much more. When that story broke, it was messy, and the headlines grew worse every day, with implications of lawsuits and countersuits. We had to wonder whether this church would even survive a scandal like this.
And so one day I stopped in to see Dr. Jones, and found him staring into space, his back turned to the door. I knocked gently and identified myself. He swiveled around and I saw tears in his eyes. “Bob, what’s wrong? Are you all right?” “My church,” he said. “My pastor”. And then, calling that pastor’s name, he cried out, “He has been the greatest single disappointment I have faced in my entire Christian life.”
Disappointment! Yes, we do have disappointments in our Christian lives. None so dramatic, usually, as a flagrant scandal. But disappointments nonetheless. A brother who is found in a half-truth. A sister who indulges in gossipy judgments about other church members. A deacon who fails to show up when there is a death in the family. A Sunday School teacher who is seldom prepared to teach. And maybe even an interim pastor who preaches too long and says a few things we’d rather not hear! Disappointments, all across the spectrum. It is just a part of church life.
The apostle Paul certainly had his share of disappointments with the church at Corinth. You may know that in his First Letter to Corinth Paul had taken up a whole range of topics about that church. He had written about their dividing into factions, he had spoken about how some lorded it over others, he had dealt with their disorderly conduct in worship, and, of all places, here at the Lord’s Table. He had even had to admonish them for permitting a member to live in an incestuous relationship. Paul had spent lots of time and energy trying to correct the church at Corinth.
And now, here in the passage for today, he refers to a painful visit and to a stern letter; he speaks of dealing with them again on a variety of issues. And, most of all, Paul confronts their challenging his right even to speak at all. They have questioned whether he is a genuine apostle, they have suggested that he is collecting money under false pretenses, and they have written off his teachings as useless. Paul has been in the fight of his life with this church.
But now, here in this passage, it sounds as though the fight is nearly over. It feels as though Paul is finally getting somewhere. And what he now wants them to know is that even though his disappointment has been huge, so great also is his hope for them. And if they have been irritated with him, so also will they now learn much from him. If – and this is the key element – if they stay together. Together, joined in community. If they have been able to stay together through all their disappointments, so also will they come out together in hope.
For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation.
The sufferings of Christ are abundant for you; so also consolation, hope, is abundant through Christ. We serve a God of abundance and not a God of scarcity. And if sometimes our disappointments are abundant, then so also will our hope be abundant. What our God asks is that we stay together. If we stay together in disappointments, we shall also be together in hope, and our expectations for our church will be unshaken. Firm and clear, unshaken and abundant.
I
Consider your church as it is now. A year ago I spoke to you about the losses you had experienced and the challenges that you faced. I was as candid as I knew how to be, though in truth I did not then know the full extent of the issues in front of you. But I argued at that time, and reiterate it now, that our God is a God of possibilities, and that He is at work in all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. By the way, lest you think otherwise, I didn’t make that up. It’s Paul again, in Romans 8:28 … asserting that God is at work. Not idle, not a God of scarcity, but of abundance. At work in all things. All things, not a God of scarcity, but a God of abundance. For good – God desires no calamities, God wants no churches to fail, God wants His kingdom to thrive. For good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose – if you know His purposes you will see what He is doing and will find fulfillment in it. You may have some disappointments along the way, but if you look for God at work, you will know hope. Abundant hope. Why? You know the answer – repeat it after me: God is not a God of scarcity, but a God of abundance.
Consider your church; it may not be as different from the church at Corinth as you might suppose!
a
Yours is a church that knew, for a number of years, an abundance of growth. People moved into the area, found this church, loved what was available here, and joined. It was growing and growing well. In fact, Pastor Updike told me once that when the ultra-conservatives were taking over the Southern Baptist Convention, they went hunting for like-minded people to put on the boards of the Convention’s agencies. They asked Pastor Updike to serve on the board of the Southern Baptist Seminary; then they found out he was not one of them, but was a man of far broader spirit than they. Someone frankly said, “You are the pastor of a growing church; we just assumed that only conservatives grow churches.” Pastor Updike got a kick out of that!
But you grew and you felt a wonderful spirit of accomplishment in those years. However, the statistics show that about eight or nine years ago the church stopped growing and, in fact, began to shrink. Members moved away and not so many new members came to replace them. You began to feel disappointment; this was no longer quite the booming, dynamic place it had once been. But you remained together in that time of disappointment. You stayed here and you worked and prayed to think through how you could turn around this decline. Brothers and sisters, it is not yet dramatic; it is not yet a full turnaround. But some thirty new members thus far in this present year suggest that as you have been together in disappointment, God is honoring that and will keep you together in hope. For our God is not a God of scarcity, but of abundance.
b
Consider your church. Yours is a church that for years was held up as a model for others to imitate, for you not only provided for your staff and built your buildings and operated your ministries, but you also supported missions work beyond the confines of your church. I have been around here long enough to remember when First Baptist Church of Gaithersburg was the great financial success story. But then that began to slip. You found the going tough. The mortgage was large, the cost of staff and supplies and everything from power to paper was soaring, and so you did what you felt you had to do: you paid the bills that must be paid and you let other things go, including missions. After all, missionaries do not send bills and the Baptist Convention has no sheriff on its staff. You did what you felt you had to do.
But last winter I heard you vow to return to what had made you great. I heard you promise yourselves and your God that you would renew your faith commitment. You said, last winter, we will give to missions first and then let the rest fall out as it may. You said, only a few months ago, we have been together in the disappointment of falling behind financially; now let us stay together and see what hope the Lord will grow among us.
And have you seen what the Lord has done? Have you felt it, do you know this? You stayed together during the lean times of disappointment, you waited together for the time of hope, you made a key decision to live into God’s purposes. And what has happened? The mortgage payments have been reduced, a tenant has come to pay significant rent, old deficits have been erased, and the bills are being paid with some to spare! Oh, praise God! Praise God! For He is a God of abundance and not a God of scarcity. And if you ask me whether I am afraid for our future because of the stock market slide, I will tell you that our God is Lord of both the bulls and the bears, and He is sufficient. He is enough. Consider your church.
c
Consider your church. Consider that for twenty-seven years you were led by a senior pastor whose love for you was unbounded and whose passion for the Kingdom was genuine and full. Great and wonderful years with a relationship that was the envy of others around this city. In my thirty-seven years in this area I have seen some churches turn over pastors seven and eight times; we call these pastor-eating churches! But Pastor Updike left following his own lights and hearing the call of God to bring his vision to another place. I know you felt deep disappointment; without question you felt a measure of lostness. But you have stayed together even in your disappointments, and look again at what is happening: new ministries and programs forming, committees fully staffed, energy for outreach, and a perception that our search committee will bring the right pastor for this time and this place. Praise our God, for He is a God of abundance and not of scarcity, and He is doing a work among you that will astound us all, once it matures. You will become a beacon to this community and a light to this world because you have stayed together in disappointment and you will stay together in hope. You will commit yourselves to all that lies ahead, to prayer and to participation and to witness and, yes, I have unshaken hope in you that you will commit to financial support. You will do this, I know, and you can, for you serve a God of abundance and not of scarcity; you serve an abundant Lord who wants to give abundant life through an abundant church.
II
My friend Robert Jones? The one who said that his pastor had become the greatest disappointment of his entire Christian life? He could have decided to attend his church and just whine and sulk. He could have withheld his tithes. He could have wandered off and joined another church. He might have quit participating in church altogether. There were many things Bob could have done. But what did he actually do? Bob prayed and then went to work. He found counseling for that disappointing pastor and helped to broker a severance agreement. He went right on teaching his Sunday School class of young adults, leading them to embrace God’s purposes for that church. My good friend, who is now with the Lord in glory, would not let a disappointment, however profound, push him out of the church; no, he knew that we must stay together in disappointments, and that, when we do, we will one day also be together in hope.
For we serve, you see, the same God of whom Joseph spoke when, after he had been sold into slavery but emerged as the viceroy of Egypt, with great power and wealth, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, to save many people.” Ours is a God of abundance and not of scarcity.
We serve the same God who took a nation out of bondage and led them through the waters of the Red Sea into the wilderness, there for a while to know hunger and confusion. But He was to them a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, and to the land of promise they came. For their God was a God of abundance and not of scarcity.
We serve the same God who, through the hands of Jesus, took five loaves and two fish and fed a hungry throng. A God of abundance. We serve the same God who, through the voice of Jesus, commanded Peter to cast his nets into the deep, and thus brought up a great catch of fish. A God of abundance. We serve the same God who, at the wish of Jesus, turned ordinary water into rich and piquant wine. A God of abundance and not of scarcity.
And most of all, we serve the same God who hovered over a green hill far away without a city wall, where they crucified and killed His only begotten. The bitterest disappointment of all; and those who had loved Him knew not what to make of it. But they came together in their disappointment to pray and to wait; and into that room there burst, in magnificence, the One who was dead and is alive forevermore, Christ Jesus. Our God is a God of life. Our God is a God of abundant life. Our God is a God of abundance and not of scarcity. If we have been together in disappointment, that same God will bring us forth together in hope.
For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation.
Our hope is unshaken. So come now to the table of abundance set before you. This is the table of hope and possibility, for these small symbols but point to that which is to come – His Kingdom, His promise of salvation, His abundant life. Come. Together in disappointment, ever together in hope.
