Giving God Our Best
“Count On Me” Message Series: Part 4
Cornerstone Church
Rev. Gary A. Shockley, Senior Pastor
January 26, 2003
A man on his deathbed called his preacher, his doctor and his lawyer to visit him. “I have $30,000 left in the bank and I want to take it all with me when I die. So, I’m giving each of you an envelope with $10,000 cash in it. At my funeral, I want each of you to come and put your envelope in my coffin.” The man died, and each of the three did what he asked. Later in the week they met up with each other to talk about the experience. The preacher said, “I’m sure that if he’d thought about it more brother Smith would have wanted to help out with the new church organ. So I took $2,000 out of the envelope and put $8,000 in the coffin.” The doctor confessed, “Well, he complimented me on the care I provided him when he was ill and I knew he’d want to help fund my new clinic so I took $5,000 out and deposited $5,000 in the coffin.” The lawyer said, “I did better than both of you. I took the $8,000 you left preacher, and I took the $5,000 you left doctor. I also kept my $10,000. But to be fair I left behind in the coffin a check for the $30,000.”
John Piper in his book “Desiring God” writes, “money is the currency of the Kingdom of God. What you do with it—or desire to do with it—can make or break your happiness forever.”
My friends the most important thing that can come out of the time we’ve spent together this month is our ability to grasp what the Bible has to say about stewardship and for us to begin to put a few simple, but important, principles to work in the way we look upon and use our resources.
According the John, the writer of the fourth gospel, there was quite a party going on in this modest home in Bethany. Parallel passages tell us Simon- a leper Jesus healed was there. So was Lazarus-the man Jesus brought back to life. Lazarus’ sister Martha was there with her unquenchable gift of hospitality. So was Lazarus’ other sister Mary who often spent time sitting with Jesus caught up in the stories he would tell. The disciples were there. Of course, Jesus is the guest of honor.
When they had finished eating Martha “redded” up the table as the men were lost in conversation. Mary, who had on another occasion, been accused by her sister as being a “slacker” for not helping with the dishes, resisted her chores again. Mary’s in her room rummaging through her hope chest. She knows exactly what she’s looking for. She comes back to the dining room, dodges her sister Martha and quietly weaves her way around the dinner table to position herself at Jesus’ feet. Quietly she works to open a large jar--one that had probably been sealed from her birth. She reaches inside, scoops out some of its fragrant contents and with circular motions begins to smother Jesus’ feet. She continues scooping and wiping until there is so much on Jesus’ feet she needs to mop up some of it—with her hair. The fragrance fogged the room. Imagine the stunned silence of the group. John tells us the twelve ounce jar was worth a small fortune- the equivalent of 300 days wages. Almost a year’s income! Judas quickly calculates its value and immediately objects to her wastefulness. He feigns concern for the poor. How much better it would have been had Mary given the perfume to him so he could sell it to help the needy. John adds, parenthetically, that Judas was a thief and simply wanted the money for himself.
Jesus puts an end to the debate by graciously accepting Mary’s gift and the heart behind it.
From this story we glean three things that anchor us in what the Bible says about stewardship-the way we think about and use God’s resources:
1. Everything we have comes from God and belongs to Him.
Let’s look at the biblical teaching behind this. Chris referenced Psalm 24:1 last week, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it!” It all comes from God and belongs to Him. We read in 2 Chronicles 29:16, “O Lord our God, even these materials that we have gathered to build a Temple to honor your name comes from you! It all belongs to you!” Paul wrote in I Corinthians 4:7, “What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why boast as though you’ve accomplished something on your own?”
Mary, I believe, could make such a lavish gift, because she understood this overarching principle of life. Everything we have comes from God and belongs to Him. Contrast the response of Judas whose actions betrayed his attitude of, “It may have all come from God but it’s mine now!” I was talking with one of our members the other day and asked the question, “why do some people react so negatively to stewardship teaching?” I think their answer was right on, “It’s because they believe what they have is truly their own. They earned it, they invested it, they bought it, it’s theirs!” It’s a problem of ownership!
Let me ask you all this morning: What do you have that God didn’t give you?
· Let’s look at your life. You didn’t create yourself. God did that. Your very life was given you by God. We just commemorated 30 years since Roe verses Wade. The numbers of abortions in that time period are staggering! How can anyone justify the taking of a human life especially when we believe that God himself is the Author of life! God gave you your life!
· Your mind is a gift from God. Your ability to think and plan and act in ways that make you “employable” all comes from God;
· The talents, skills, gifts you have that enable you to earn a living—all of them from God! Everything you purchase and “own” comes as the result of all God has given you!
Everything we have comes from God and belongs to Him. Everything! So, if we accept this as true we see that our giving to God is really an offering back of what already belongs to Him.
2. The second overarching stewardship principle is this: God-honoring giving flows out of a heart of gratitude. Remember, Mary’s brother Lazarus had died. He had been in the tomb four days. There was no hope of his return. Jesus came and restored his life and gave him back to Mary and Martha. How do you put a price on such a gift? Mary’s giving must have flowed out of a heart bursting with gratitude. How can you offer the one who gave you life, the one who brought hope in a hopeless situation anything less than everything you are and have? Christian giving flows not out of a heart of obligation but of gratitude.
Judas couldn’t grasp this because, if he gave at all, it was a cold and calculated kind of giving that asks not how much can I give but how much will I have left for myself? Judas suffered what many people, including Christians, are afflicted with in our culture-aflluenza. The need to get more and more stuff for ourselves while lessening our desire and ability to give.
In his book, The Music of Silence, author David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine Monk, paints this picture of affluence.
“Affluence suggests that whatever flows in never comes out. Our affluent society stays affluent by making the containers bigger when they are just about to overflow, like a fountain with its lovely veils of water spilling over. The economics of affluence demand that things that were special for us last year must now be taken for granted; so the container gets bigger, and the joy of overflowing, gratefulness, is taken away from us. But if we make the vessel smaller and smaller by reducing our needs, then the overflowing comes sooner and with it the joy of gratefulness. It’s the overflow that sparkles in the sun.” (pg. 30)
Is your giving to God flowing from a heart of gratefulness for all that the Lord has done in your life? What’s he done? Well, if you’re a Christian he has given birth to you twice! Once through your parents. Secondly through the cross of Jesus. Jesus shed his own blood to purchase your soul, to save you from sin and it’s eternal consequences in hell. Through his sacrificial act of love he rebirthed you. You are born again to a new life. Paul put it this way, “You do not belong to yourself for God bought you with a high price.” (I Corinthians 6:19,20)
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul writes, “Those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” Jesus said in John 3:3, “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.” If you’re a Christian your giving to God ultimately flows out of a heart filled with gratitude for the new life—for the eternal life-- God has given you in Jesus!
Everything we have comes from God and belongs to Him. Our giving to God flows out of a heart of gratitude. And finally…
3. The gifts I give to God ought to cost me something. My giving to God should stretch me. It should cause me to rethink my spending. It should affect even the priorities in my life.
Did Mary’s gift cost her something? Well, aside from being worth well over $10,000, and losing the security of that kind of money for future needs, it may have cost her personal honor. You see what made that perfume so expensive was its intended use. Special oils and spices were imported from India and combined with native extracts to create an anointing oil used exclusively to embalm its owner. That’s right! Mary understood Jesus’ ultimate purpose in coming. She pointed to his eventual death on the cross by anointing him with her own embalming ointment. She offered a gift that personally cost her something!
In the book of 2 Samuel 24 we read of King David securing the land where the Temple would be built. The owner of the land, Arauna, offered to give the land and all it’s natural resources to David free of charge. David exercised this third principle when he replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it, for I cannot offer to God that which costs me nothing.”
What we offer to God is an expression of who we are and what we value most in life. If you want to know what I truly believe and what I am most committed to don’t ask me, examine my calendar—where I spend my time. Take a look at the ministries I’m invested in—my talents. Study my checkbook. Look at where my money is going.
There’s a disconnect somewhere when over 80% of all Americans profess a faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ and the average of these households commit less than 2% of their gross annual income to God’s work!
Jesus said, “wherever your treasure is…there your heart and thoughts will also be.” Want to know what has captured your heart and mind? Take a look at what you treasure! A gift worth giving to God must ultimately cost us something!
Each person in this place has an opportunity to do something that may be more spiritually significant than anything else we do this year. That is to come before God, the center of our worship and devotion, break ourselves open—our time, talents, treasure and trust…our best…and pour them out for Him for the sake of His kingdom and His church! The card you hold in your hand and will complete and offer up to God is merely the container, the vessel you use to consecrate your gifts to Him. Everything we have comes from God and belongs to Him. The kind of giving that honors God flows from hearts of gratitude. The gifts I offer Let’s pray and prepare our hearts…
Help us, Lord, not to shrink back from the opportunity right in front of us. We want to be bold in our response to your challenge this morning. More than anything else…we want to please you! We choose this morning to use this vessel, we lovingly call our Cornerstone home, to channel our gifts to you. We pray that you would receive our committed gifts so that you might have your way with us and through us. Through your Holy Spirit continue to guide our staff and leaders. Give them boldness in taking your church to the next level of ministry and outreach in 2003. We affirm in our commitment this morning that everything we have comes from and belongs to you; that our gifts come from hearts brimming with gratitude; and that what we offer you now costs us something. Receive our gifts…in Jesus’ name and to His service. Amen!
