Why Should I Give When I Have Bills To Pay (Stewardship)

Why Should I Give When I’ve Got Bills To Pay

Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 Luke 15:1-10

I can remember when I got my first lawnmower. I was about 12 years old. My mother wanted me to be able to learn how to earn money and to work for myself. I’m not sure how she managed to scrape the money together to buy me that lawnmower.

We lived in Dublin Ga, and there were plenty of yards up and down the street that I could possibly cut. My mom wanted me to not only learn the discipline of work, she wanted me to be happy and to have some spending money in my pocket. She was thrilled when she presented the lawnmower to me. She could see the happiness in my face and I in hers.

I could see little dollars dancing in my head. She then asked me, “how much would I be able to give her toward the lawnmower. “ I told her well, I have to buy gas, I have to buy oil, and I have to by some things for myself, but if there was something left over, I would give her some of it. All the joy in her face disappeared, and she slowly walked away.

I realize now today, that I probably hurt my mom more in that instant, that I had ever done before. She had made this huge sacrifice for me, and all I was willing to offer to her were parts of my leftovers. I did not fully understand the gift I had been given and the cost that she had paid.

Suppose for a moment you took in a friend or a family member who was just plain down and out. They had no money, no food, no anything. You took care of them for a year. They finally got a job. You noticed one day, they had put a 60 inch tv in the bedroom you let them use.

You noticed a new i-phone, I pad, and the expensive ear buds for their music. You noticed the nice new designer jeans that had perfectly cut holes in them. You realize they have been their spending money, but are still eating, sleeping, and using your utilities as before.

Finally you tell them, “Look, I want you to start paying for some rent and food?” How would you feel, if they told you, “I love you and I appreciate all you have done for me, but I can’t pay rent, I’ve got bills to pay. Look at all this stuff in my room. I was wondering if I could put some stuff in your basement.” What would you want to say to them.

Do you know the number one reason most followers of Christ give little or nothing to the Lord financially. They say, It’s because they say they don’t have enough to give. They have too many bills to pay. Let me ask you this, “When you have too many bills how do you decide which one to pay and which one to just sit there?”

Jesus told us what the single largest bill was that we have would have to pay when he said, “What will it profit a person to gain the whole world, and lose their soul.” What is the price of your soul?

What would you accept as the price of your soul if you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a heaven and a hell which lasts for eternity? Suppose God took you to both for 5 minutes each. How many of you would say, “for $150 million dollars, I will gladly spend 30 years being rich in this life, and then spend eternity in hell with all its pain and suffering.” Do you have more important bills than where you and your loved ones will spend eternity?

We are becoming a church in which we value the souls of men, women and children. We want to be that place, where Jesus is in the business of saving souls. That’s why we have our 50/50 goal of 50 new members and 50 new souls saved which is standing at 7/5. Jesus gave us a new commandment and a marching commandment in the pursuit of souls. The first was to love one another as he has loved us and the second was to go into all the world, preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations.

The commandments of Jesus cost money. This is the bill that the church has been given to pay. Everybody in the church has been given a share of the bill by God. Somebody in the past paid their portion of the bill and that’s why we are believers in Christ today. Some paid with their lives to get us the gospel. Others gave all they had to provide us with the opportunity to save those coming behind us.