Malachi 3:7-10
7 Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty. "But you ask, ’How are we to return?’ 8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, ’How do we rob you?’ "In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse-- the whole nation of you-- because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 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. 9 As it is written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." 10 Now 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. 11 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. 12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 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, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
“Tis a Gift”
O
ne Dollar:
If the ushers would help me out a little bit now… I would like them to hand out today’s sermon illustration. One dollar. This dollar now belongs to you. It is a TRUE gift. It is one more dollar than you had before you walked into this church… and you are required to do absolutely nothing… NOTHING… to earn it. It is not out of the church budget… it is not from the worship committee… this gift does not come from the church at all… it comes out of Alyssa’s and my bank account. It is not from my professional account and it is not part of my 10% tithe for the year. This… is a one dollar gift from me to you. And I don’t expect anything back in return.
The only advice I will give to you regarding this dollar is… I want you to treat it like it represents everything God has given to you. I absolutely do not want you to give it back to me, or to Alyssa, or try to be sneaky and give it to William. You see… that money was not mine to begin with… it was God’s… and God blessed me with it… and encouraged me to use it today as a gift for you, so do not give it back to me… that dollar is REALLY from God. The second thing I will encourage you to do… is that I don’t want you to put this back in the offering plate when we pass the plates around… mainly because I want you to leave church today with this dollar in your pocket… and the thought that this dollar is a gift from God… that this dollar represents every gift God has given you.
Psalms 24:1-2 says, "All of the world is the Lord’s & everything that is in it." Everything you have is a gift… just like this dollar was a gift. Your house, your job, your money, your success, your talents, your life… everything… was a gift from God. And here’s the real kicker… he doesn’t put any conditions on it whatsoever… he gives it to us freely. We get to decide what we do with what God has given us. We can do anything we want with it. The question isn’t whether we’ve earned it… the question isn’t whether we deserve it… no: the question is… what are we going to do with the gifts God has given us?
Now you can use this dollar for anything you want. You can spend it any way you chose. This dollar is now your dollar. However… I will challenge you a little… to use that dollar for something good. I’m going to challenge you… to find a really great way to use this dollar. Perhaps you can use it to buy a dohnut at Dave’s for someone who needs cheering up. Maybe that dollar can buy a stamp… to send a letter to someone who has been needing the encouragement. Maybe you can buy a THIRD of a gallon of gas to drive and visit somebody who is lonely. Perhaps, you look at that dollar, and think… a dollar can’t do anything… well… maybe, just maybe… this dollar could encourage a few of it’s buddies to reach out too! Then again… maybe, you will decide to keep this dollar, put it in your bible… and let it serve as a daily reminder that this dollar was a gift… just like everything we have is a gift from God.
That is the single most important thing we need to learn from any stewardship drive, that everything we have is a gift from God. Then… stewardship isn’t about keeping the lights on and paying the bills. Stewardship becomes a response to God’s love. We give, because we have been given to.
Let’s kick it back into today’s scripture to verse 12. Paul is writing to the Corinthians during harsh economic times, and encourages them to remain steadfast in their stewardship to the Lord, and here is what he says in verse 12 and 13 “This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 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, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.”
Essentially, when you realize that everything is a gift from God, you can’t help but give abundantly in an expression of thanks to God. Now here is something interesting too… the Greek word for service in verse 12 and 13 is leitourgi,aj – LITURGY… as in worship. When we give with the right heart and the right intent… it becomes a way of worshiping God. So the next time you are paying the bills, and writing that check out to the church… you can think to yourself… “I’m worship God right now!” Now, another thing I find interesting from our scripture text this morning is found in verse 8, “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.” How many of you have been affected in some way by the worsening economy? How many of you have had to cut back on something? How many have wondered how long this is going to last?
Times are tough. I can’t even begin to stand up here and tell you I know what the future of our economy is going to look like. It may get better… it may get worse… I don’t know. There is nothing in this book (hold up bible) that teaches me anything about what is going to happen with our economy. What this book will do, however, is tell us what God does when we get into spots like this. When times got tough for the Corinthians… these were Paul’s words, “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.” GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU, trust in him… and give generously in your stewardship knowing that God will bless you tenfold!
It’s a hard thing to do though isn’t it… really trust in him? You know how much money you have in the bank… you know how much money you need… and then maybe you begin to think that the church just wont get it’s check this month, it’s only reasonable… it’s only practical. As long as that money is still there, we know that that money will take care of us.
It takes real faith… to trust that God is in control. When it comes time to pay the bills… it takes real faith to remember that all that money is really God’s in the first place. When it comes time to write the checks… it takes real faith to make the check for the church the very first one written… our “first fruits” to the Lord, before we even know if we will have enough money to pay all of our bills. It takes real faith… to know that God… and not money… will really take care of us.
Now, as part of our stewardship drive, I could spout you statistics about our church giving average and the PC(USA) giving average… I could pull out the giving steps and challenge you to “take a step up” again… but honestly, I almost feel like all that stuff is pointless this year. This year, I will encourage you… to look at everything you have… and see that it is from God. Then I will encourage you to ask yourself one simple question… how much should I give back to God in thanks? Do we fear the times, and cut back our giving… or do we trust in the Lord and give abundantly.
As we consider this, we need to remember Paul’s words in verse 6, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” Now is the time to decide how much we will sow. Now is the time to decide how much we want to reap next year.
I am going to end today’s sermon a little differently… rather than in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit… I will steal a line from Paul… from our text today verse 15.
“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”
