Because We Love & We Care,
Ecclesiastes 5:1-16 Romans 12:9-21 Glenville 12/18/2011
Our theme at Glenville for the past two decades has been, “we love and we care. “ This is the underlying theme that holds all that we do together. We love God and we care about people. We have had perfect strangers enter into this place and immediately sense, there is something different happening here. They sense it when we have worship, they sense it when we have homegoing services, and they sense it even when we have costume parties. When we come together, we love and we care and the Holy Spirit is at work in our midst.
Every person and every church will one day come to a fork in the road in which circumstances will force them to go either to the right or to the left. As a church, we are facing a fork in the road in which we will go one way or another in our ability to love and to care. Whatever we do for God, we ought to do it with a passion to offer our best.
Let’s meet Bobby for a moment. Bobby is eleven years old, and knows his parents 20th anniversary is coming up. He tells his parents, “Mom and Dad, you’re the greatest parents in the whole world. I sure wish I had a $100 because if I did, I would get you the best anniversary gift ever.”
In the past, Bobby had always drawn them a picture card and told them how much he loved them. Bobby’s parents were interested in seeing just what their son would get them if he had the money. The next day, they sent him a hundred dollars in the mail, with no return address, and with a typed message saying, “this is for you, to do as you please.”
Bobby was thrilled when he opened the envelope. “Wow, a hundred dollars, and it is mine to do what I want to do with it.” Two days later on his parents anniversary, the anticipation was building in their hearts as to what their son would give to them. Expectation mounted as Bobby came through shouting as he always did “Happy Anniversary!”. He presented them with another hand drawn card. In it he told them they were the best parents ever, and he loved them very much.
They smiled and said, “this card is great where is our gift.” Bobby said, “You’ve got it. I always make you a card for your gift.” His father said, “but son, you said, if you had a $100, you’d get us best anniversary gift ever.” Bobby replied, “well Dad I would have, if you had of given me the $100 when I said it. The father said, “but, son you got a $100 in the mail.” Bobby replied, “I would have used some of my money, but after I bought my new game, and two cd’s, I barely had enough left to go to the movies, so you can see why I didn’t have anything left for gifts for you.
How would you have felt if you were Bobby’s parents? Would you say that Bobby’s actions indicated that he did not love. or that he did not care, or that he did not love and did not care, or that he had a very poor understanding of what loving and caring is truly all about.
One thing for sure is, Bobby simply did not understand the concept of being grateful and demonstrating it by making personal sacrifices. To love and to care means never underestimating the Spirit when we make personal sacrifices because we are grateful for what God has done for us. Who knows how many envelopes Bobby would have received if he had of acted differently?
Let me tell you some of the ways we love and we care at Glenville. Every month there is food on the table of a group of children in Haiti in a building we helped to build, because of checks we have sent for the past decade. Every school year there are books in a classroom in an orphanage in Nigeria educating the forgotten, because of checks we have sent for two decades. There is a elderly couple in India, who have been faithful in preaching Christ at the risk of their own lives, who have a home and medicine, because of checks that leave Glenville.
Every month somewhere in Ohio’s prisons, there are inmates whose family’s have forgotten about them, but they have hope because of letters, checks and money orders from that make their way behind prison walls. Every month there is a group of people who are fed a hot full meal with dignity in the midst of praise and worship because of Glenville.
Each month all over the world in most countries of the world somebody gets to hear some of the gospel via the internet because of Glenville. In September, October & November, 5567 watched our movie the Accident, and two of the 4 top countries were Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, Muslim countries. Places where the gospel is not freely preached.
Each month some one here in the church is helped out with a crisis in their lives with unexpected bills either through a no interest loan or through a gift from the Deacons fund. Each month someone gets medicine they could not afford because their insurance won’t pay for it, but Glenville will. Each time there is a youth event, and our youth do not have the money to pay for it, there are people that give anonymously to cover their costs.
Each month people come into this building, sit in comfortable seats, in a clean building, with heat or air conditioning with great restrooms and facilities. They are presented with quality bulletins, great bible study materials, great worship music, and sermons designed to enrich and enhance their lives.
Every week people receive crisis counseling, hospital and home visits, prayers, marriage assistance, parenting assistance, educational assistance, and just somebody to talk to who will share the burdens in their lives. All because we love and we care.
At Glenville, we you become a member, you are a member just as much as anybody else. You know we may not all be able to afford the same price coffin or number of limousines for a funeral, but the moment the coffin hits our property, everybody gets the same quality of service for their Homegoing service and the fellowship meal from the Deacons afterwards. All because we love and we care.
We don’t have big people and little people. We seek to be the body of Christ. Do you remember Bobby at the beginning of the message who said how much he loved, but then when given the opportunity to show it, he dropped the ball. Every person who joins our church pledges before us and God to support the church with their talents and with their finances. We have three types of givers here at Glenville.
We have givers who are cheerful givers who simply go all out for Jesus. You are tithers who give 10% or more, you also pledge to the Pastor’s Full Time Salary and to the Associates Salary. You give to the deacons and to the other funds as they come along as well as to the campaign. Your total giving greatly exceeds 10% of your income and there is no questioning your desire to make us a loving and caring church.
The second group is that group that gives 10% of their income faithfully to the Lord. You will split that 10% into the various categories and you are giving to the Lord with a cheerful spirit. People in the first and second group are both employed and retired and some our youth, with various amounts of income. Unfortunately, they make up only about 30% of the congregation, but they give about 75% of our income.
The third group is that group that does not tithe but gives to the work of the Lord on a regular basis. You have decided, that this is all you are going to give and it may be from $5 to $25 a week or in some cases a month.
The fourth group is the group that comes to church and gets all of the benefits, but feel as though you are not required to give anything either because you help around the church or your money is yours to do as you please. If you don’t come to church, you don’t give anything yet you expect the church to keep providing for you if you need it. You will boast about what your church has done, but you’re still at the level of Bobby in his giving. Now group three and four you make up the other 70% of the congregation but you give only about 25% of the income.
Now remember this a tithe is 10% of what you have. That means if you as a youth only have a dollar a week, if you gave 10 cents you tithed. If you as an adult only got $50 a week, with $5 you tithed. But if you got $500 a week at tithe is $50. If you got $5000 a week a tithe is $500. We are only asking you to give from what God has blessed you with. That is why we treat everyone the same. We don’t expect you to give more unless it is your heart to do so. We are going to love you and care for you as a church, but the issue is are you going to do the same for us.
Suppose you’ve been dating a guy who you think is really a great guy, but he’s very low on funds because he’s got a low paying job. When you go out to eat, he takes you to McDonald’s and buys you the medium size meal. You’re ready to marry this guy in a few months. But then a lawyer contacts him, and tells him he’s sending him a check for $200,000 from a relative’s estate.
When the money is in the bank, the two of you go out to dinner to celebrate. You think you’re going to finally see Red Lobster or Ruby Tuesday or Charlie’s Crab. Once again though he pulls up to McDonald’s and says, “today, I want you to feel free to super-size your meal.”
How are you feeling about your future mate? You’d hope his love for you would be demonstrated in proportion to what he has to give to you. This is why God asks for a tithe and not an amount. God gives us the opportunity to give in proportion to how we have been blessed.
Our giving is always going to be based on our hearts. We know that Jesus has told us to feed the hungry, to remember those in prison, to help the poor, to preach the gospel to the ends of the world and to make a difference in the lives of others. We have this responsibility before we make choices about the lifestyle level we have to have.
Our Old Testament told us about telling God we will do one thing and that going out and doing something else, because of our desire to accumulate things. Each financial decision we make is a spiritual choice.
Now one day, Jesus is going to ask us to give an account of all the money that He gave to us, not just the 10% but the 90% as well. Let’s imagine entering into the courtroom of heaven. All the saints are standing around, and we go before Jesus to see how we did with what was put in our care. Jesus looks at us with His piercing eyes. He shows us his hands and his side to remind us of the price he paid for us to be saved. He then says, “I came to seek and to save those who were lost, how did you help in my mission? How much did you use to spread the gospel, to feed the hungry, to help the homeless, to care for the sick, and to remember those in prison.”
How many of us are planning on saying, “Lord you know I did the best I could.” Do you realize that if this is going to be our line of defense, our first words spoken to Jesus will be a lie?” Do we actually plan to try to lie our way out of how poorly we managed what God gave to us?
The best time to prepare for that day is now. When we say “I can’t afford to tithe, let’s be honest without God and with ourselves. What we’re really saying, is the decisions I have made for my choice of lifestyle requires that I spend up the money God told me to set aside.” God will never allow us to use the excuse, “I could not afford it.”
No the reality is we could not afford that home, or that car, or that vacation, or that dress, or that place to eat, or that furniture, or that savings plan, or that brand of clothes, or that school, or that apartment or that neighborhood, or that jewelry, or that amount of savings or whatever it was.
Some of us are in so much debt because of either greed or some unfortunate experience in our lives that we cannot make ends meet. Does God expect you to start tithing tomorrow? No, but God expects you to begin to make changes today in your lifestyle, so that you can become faithful in this area of your life as well. What would you be willing to let go of, if all of a sudden you lost your job and your income was half of what it is now. Well those are the kinds of things we need to examine if are serious about getting our lives in spiritual order.
Tithing is never a matter of the amount of money we make. It is always a matter of how much do we appreciate what God has done for us and how important is being in the will of God to our lives. God never intended for tithing to be a means to keep people poor. Tithing was both a means to support the work of Jesus Christ for the church and means to a step of faith to being blessed by God in a number of areas in our individual lives. Tithing teaches what it means to be grateful to God.
People all the time asks God to bless them. But the issue is, “are you blessable by God.” We do not know how many blessings we have missed out on because we used our money as we wanted to rather than according to God’s plan for it and for us. Have you already shown God you can be faithful in the little areas of life? When we actively live in disobedience to God’s will for our lives, we are not blessable by God. For the Scripture tells us everyone the Lord loves, the Lord disciplines to get back on the right track.
Even before we knew God, and we thought all we had was our own. We were still facing death and on our way to hell. Everything would be left behind on this earth. But Jesus comes along and loves us. Provides us with new life here on earth and eternal life beyond. He pays for our salvation with His own life. He forgives our sins and gives us purpose. He then turns around and tells us, “come and use what you have that I might save others.” How much are you willing to give just to say thank you?
It’s okay to give because you believe you’re going to get something back. That’s just one of God’s promises. But it is a much higher form of giving when we say, Lord I can never repay my debt to you. But I do just want to say Thank You. Please use this, to help bring someone else into a right relationship with God. Won’t it be great to see your family members and your friends in heaven, because somebody chose to tithe and others chose to love and to care.
I started the message by saying we are at a crossroads in our ministry. Our older members have tended to be among the people most likely to tithe. That generation is passing away and going home to be with the Lord. Several of the tithers in our church have reached retirement age and their income has dropped. Our economy has changed and several people have lost their jobs. We are not growing fast enough as a church to make up for the income that we are losing.
When our youth get part time jobs, for some reason most of them do not think they should support the church with tithing. Several of our young adults when they graduate from high school and get jobs, they go for new phones and clothing rather than remembering their promises to God and to the church in the financial realm.
Other factors that hurt financially are when we have babies without husbands. Babies are expensive and they reduce the amount of money people have when you factor in food, diapers and day care. Getting into debt to have the biggest and the latest this or that also hurts.
For the first time in 22 years, we are looking at laying off employees and no longer being able to pay for some services. The fork in the road for us is this. Do we want to be able to truthfully proclaim we love and we care, or do we want to change that slogan to something else. We have a deficit of about $10,000. As your pastors, we thank all of you who will try to do something to help us out.
We are looking at cutting staff, rather than asking you who are in the top two groups to make further sacrifices because you are already going above and beyond and have done and are doing more than your fare share. We want to continue to have you give to the Excellence Campaign as you have pledged so that we can do the upgrades to our building and worship services that need to be done. We do not want to burden you further.
We appeal to those of you who get all the benefits of being a member but are not doing your fare share to seek God and ask God to help you see in your heart, what keeps you from being the cheerful and sacrificial giver that God wants you to be. We need you to make the choice to help us remain a church that proclaims “we love and we care.” That means rising up and increasing your giving.
For all of us, every time God sends a blessing into our lives from whatever source, a job, a birthday gift, a scholarship, a bonus, a prize, a winning, an insurance policy, an inheritance, or a gift, we have the opportunity to give God a tithe on it. We give it knowing that God can bless us with more than what we started with.
Pastor Toby and I have always been tithers, whether we had little or much of nothing. We played a game in Marriage Sensation last week sort of like the Newlywed game. You had to answer a question and your spouse had to have the same answer. The question was, what was the first major purchase you made after your were married. Most of the couples either said a car or a house.
I said to myself, well that’s easy, but she won’t remember it, but the first major purchase we had was some rental furniture. I was shocked when she gave the answer, “it may not have seen like much to everyone else, but I think it was some rental furniture.” When we got married, some 31 years ago, we were broke, but we had a love for God, a love for the church and a love for each other that God has blessed. There are pastors with larger churches, larger salaries, and more prestige than I will ever know, but there are none any more blessed than I am with what God has given me through my wife and through this church.
Being tithers has kept us from purchasing things we could not afford to have. It also taught us that things are just things. They only satisfy for a little while. But what we do for Christ, lasts for a lifetime. Our goal is for the Holy Spirit to continue to remain in this place because we love and we care about people. We’re not sure what our new staffing pattern is going to be.
The positions we may have to eliminate is the position that Sylvia gives us as our outreach person. She’s been there to welcome our guests in a special way. She contacts them, she visits with them, and she leads them through our new membership classes. Every time we go into the neighborhood seeking to reach new people, she is knocking on doors and passing out literature. She’s the one who makes sure our funds are deposited and any leftover counting is completed. She maintains all of our church records for our denomination.
Our second position is that of Mrs. Reese as part of our office personnel. She’s our receptionist. She assists with the programs you have in your hands today. She duplicates and prepares our dvd’s. She sends you, your monthly letters and statements. She contacts you when it’s your time to serve as ushers, greeters, media teams and camera operators. One of the things that hurts is that both Sylvia and Mrs. Reese are in that top 25% giving group who have gone way above 10% in their giving.
Our third position is that from our music department. We will eliminate paying for our guitarist and our drummers. This is unfortunate in that our band has been taking us to even greater levels in worship.
Our other cuts will involve eliminating coffee hour and our café 8:30 worship format until we are able to stabilize our income and our expenses. We want to avoid cutting any of the mission projects that we support because much of that is going to help the poorest of the poor.
We want you to know what would help us the most is your willingness to come and help us go into the community when we have community days for evangelism. When people join the church, not only do they get to know Christ, they also help out with the mission of the church financially. Evangelism is the easiest way for you to double or triple your income to the church. Bringing somebody else into the church makes a huge difference. Do you know, the last time we went into the community to give out flyers, 3 people showed up the following Sunday to church from the flyers. But the sad part was there were only five of us giving our the flyers for the hour and a half period. There were another 15 of us at the church operating the community day activities. But I ask if 20 of us were there trying to prevent this fork in the road from happening, where were the 200 members.
In 2012, I hope there will be some Saturdays in which we will forget about all choir rehearsals and all dance rehearsals, and forget about what we usually do on a Saturday and sacrificially go find those who are lost by knocking on doors and inviting them to worship. I want us to gather for a Saturday in the same numbers we gather on a Sunday and blanket our neighborhood with invitations and materials for worship. Part of our 50th anniversary ought to just be Saturdays in which we seek to bring in 50 people as guests the following Sunday.
Ultimately the most important work that we do is assisting in helping to bring people to Jesus Christ. That is the final measure of how much we love and how much we care. Jesus came to earth with a mission. He said, “I came to seek and to save those who were lost.” That was the most critical aspect of Jesus’ ministry. Then Jesus turned around and gave the mission to us. He tells us in
Our purpose statement flows out of Jesus’ John 15:16
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Notice that as a result of us doing what God tells us to do, God is able to bless us with answers to our prayers.
mission. He came to seek and to save—Our purpose is to enter into a right relationship with God, and to be equipped for the ministry of Jesus Christ, to make a difference in the lives of others.
Because We Love And We Care
12/18/11 Glenville Ecclesiastes 5:1-16 Romans 12:9-21
Our Theme Two Decades
1. We Love & We Care—Holds Together
2. Strangers Sense The Presence When They Enter
3. Presence Of The Holy Spirit
4. Fork In The Road—To The Left Or Right
Meet 11 year old Bobby
1. 2O th Annvirsary If Only I Had A $100—Card Gift
2. $100 In The Mail—The Card Gift
3. Bobby’s Gift, & What he Would Have Done
4. I didn’t Have Any Left
What Was Bobby’s Problem
1. How Did Parents Feel
2. Didn’t Love, Didn’t Care, Both Or Misunderstanding
3. Missed Being Grateful—personal Sacrifice
4. Never Underestimate The Spirit
5. How Many Envelopes Did He Miss
How We Love & Care At Glenville
1. Hungry Children Haiti
2. Classroom Books Nigeria
3. Elderly Preacher India
4. Ohio Prison
5. Feeding The Hungry At Clavary
6. Gospel Preached Internet & TV, 10 local broadcast
7. 5567 Viewers The Accident Sept-Nov. Pakistan Saudi Arabia
8. Church Members Emergency Loan Deacons
9. Prescription Fund Insurance
10. Youth Needs Taken Care Of
11. Building, Seats, Heat AC Restrooms
12. Bulletins, Bible Study, Music, Sermons
13. Pastors-counseling, visits, prayers, marriage, parenting, educational, talking too
Members Treated The Same At Funerals
1. No Big & Little People
2. We All make The Same Pledge To Support
3. We All Expect The Same
Four Types Of Givers.
1. Cheerful above 10%, Pastor Full Tiime, Associate, Excellence & More Easily exceeds 10%
2. Cheerful at 10%--you Split It
3. Retired & Workers 30% of members 75% of giving
4. Third –Less Than 10% regular givers $5-25 week month
5. Fifth—Hardly give anything or absolutely nothing
6. Group 3 & 4 70% but give only 25%
What Is Tithing—10% of What Your Have
10 cents, $5, $50, $500 Give As You Are Blessed
We Are Going To Love You
Dating The McDonald’s Guy
He Gets A Check For $200,000 Still McDonalds
Giving Is Based On The Heart
1. Jesus Feed Hungry, Prison, Poor, Preach
2. Each Financial Decision Is A Spiritual Choice
3. One Day We Will Give An Account For The Full 100%
4. The Court Room Drama In Heaven
5. How Much Did You Use To Spread The Gospel
6. Well Lord I Was Planning On It
What Is It That We Could Not Afford
1. Home, Car, Vacation, Dress, Furniture, Apt. School
2. Greed & Debt---Make Changes Today
3. Tithing Never Amount We Make
4. Tithing A Way Of Blessing
5. Are We Blessable
What Jesus Has Done For Us
1. How Do We Say Thanks
2. Give To Receive –Give To Say Thanks
We Are At Cross Roads
1. Older Members, Tithers, Death, Retirement, Economy
2. Not Growing Fast Enough
3. Youth With Jobs, Not Giving Back
4. Birth Of Babies Without Fathers Present
5. People Choosing To Get Into Debt For The Bigger
6. Fork To Lay off People First Time In 22 Years
7. Deficit Of $10,000—Try To Help
Why Look At Cutting Staff Vs Increase
1. The Group That Already Gives Is The One Who Will Do It
2. Let’s Talk Fareness—Complete Excellence Campaign
3. Appeal To Those Not Giving, To Pray For What Stops You
4. We Want To Remain A We Love & We Care
5. 10% job, birthday gift, a scholarship, bonus, prize, winning,
6. Insurance policy, inheritance, gift
Pastor Toby & I As Tithers
1. Marriage Sensation Game Rental Furniture
2. How God Has Blessed Us
3. Tithing Disciplined Us—Not Things, But People
4. Positions To Eliminate Sylvia
Guests, New Members, Contacts, Evangelism, Records
5. Evelyn, Office assistant, bulletins, dvd’s statements, receptionist, contact person
6. Both are in the top 25% of tithers & givers
7. Cuts In Music Department—Guitarist & Drummers
8. Cuts In Coffee Hour & Café Worship
9. No Cuts In Mission Poorest Of The Poor
Community Days Evangelism
1. Evangelism the way to double or tiple your giving
2. Last Time Evangelism 3 Showed up, 5 went 15 at Community Post, where were the other 200
3. 2012—Cancel It All To Go As An Army
50th Celebration—Wining 50 Regularly
4. Ultimate Goal In Bringing People To Jesus Christ
Jesus Came With A Mission
1. To Seek & To Save The Lost
John 15:16
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Notice that as a result of us doing what God tells us to do, God is able to bless us with answers to our prayers.
2. Our Purpose Statement
