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The Price of our Mission -
The text of a sermon preached 5th January 2020
I once saw a sketch about an American Baptist church, you know the type where the preacher really gets worked up and the congregation shout back- not very C/E
He’d shout out:-
"IF THIS CHURCH IS GOING TO SERVE GOD IT’S GOT TO GET DOWN ON ITS KNEES AND CRAWL!!!"
And the audience yelled back "Make it crawl preacher, make it crawl!
"AND ONCE THIS CHURCH HAS LEARNED TO CRAWL, IT’S GOT TO GET UP
ON ITS FEET AND WALK!!!"
"Make it walk preacher, make it walk" the audience moaned.
AND ONCE THIS CHURCH HAS LEARNED TO WALK ITS GOT BEGIN TO LEARN TO RUN!!!"
"Make it run, preacher, make it run!"
"AND IN ORDER TO RUN, ITS GOT TO REACH DEEP DOWN INTO POCKETS AND LEARN TO GIVE!!!"
(pause/ silence) "Make it crawl preacher, make it crawl."
A Church can’t grow if it doesn’t give. And if it doesn’t give… it’ll crawl. This is a sermon about giving but more importantly it is about a principal of giving which is stewardship. The price of our mission – will be all about money.
Proms this year
I started talking to a nice man – reading a commentary on Romans
Got talking turned out he used to teach me son in Sheffield
Next found out his brother lived in B in W. He texted in the interval and asked if he knew “Rev. Burley of Burley” – He said Yes I went once and all he talked about was money so I never went again!
My reply is that
I bet in the past when you did hear giving preach it would be along these lines.
CC gets about £2,625 a month in income – we pay out about £2,600
That sounds great except the price of our mission without the massive subsidy we receive is nearer to £8,400 a month. Another £6,000 a month is needed. PCC’s of which I have seen many, scratch their heads - In many churches you are taught that to respond to this you have a raffle or a coffee morning or a fundraiser or a jumble sale or whatever.
Before taking the offering a Vicar announced that the church had several unexpected expenses in the last month. He encouraged everyone to make a significant offering that morning, and as extra incentive he said that whoever gave the most that day would get to pick three hymns. The plate was bought round and was bought forward and on the top was a cheque for £1000
. The Vicar asked the donor to please come forward. After a brief pause an older woman came forward absolutely beaming. The Vicar thanked her profusely and then reminded her that she was entitled to pick three hymns. Without hesitation she pointed at three handsome young men and said, "I pick him, and him, and him”.
This morning I want to teach you what the Bible teaches we need to learn a new principle and as our mission grows we will need more and so I have to teach a principle which is the most important. It is the principle of stewardship.
This verse is vital 1 Chronicles 29 v 14 “Yours O lord is the greatness, the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour. For everything in heaven and on earth is yours.”
All things come from you- and of your own do we give you.
1 Chronicles 29: Is not the most popular book in the bible infact it is very boring - whoever wrote it has an obsession with listing/ chronicling things that is how he gets his name.
In I Chronicles 29, near the end of the first book, just before he is going to die David starts the first great appeal to build the temple in Jerusalem.
David believed that God deserved a Temple. At first God would not let him build the temple. He was not allowed to because as I Chronicles 28:2-3 tells us: David was a man of war & blood. That was not the type of man God wanted to have building the Temple. It was to be his son Solomon who was to do the building.
BUT David still believed that a temple for God should be built, AND SO (vs 2ff) he dedicated his own wealth to the project. And his vision is so INFECTIOUS that (vs 6) the other leaders dedicated money for the Temple. And then (vs 9) the people gave freely and wholeheartedly to the new Temple.
v9 The people rejoiced and gave wholeheartedly to the Lord.
Now we get to the highlight of this passage David stands before the whole congregation and makes a prayer.
Listen to the prayer.
V10- 11
He had grasped the most important fact about God’s amazing generosity to us. That all things in our life come from God and it is because of God that we give.
the absolute given ness of Christianity- it is all gift, everything in the world comes from God’s amazing generosity to us.
AND IT’S TRUE OF ALL CHRISTIANS – we give as we believe. I believe it is only as we realise the generosity of God that we are going to give.
1) The generosity of God in creation
God has given us the most wonderful and marvellous world. I hardly need to go on. He doesn’t just give us a flower, he gives us fields of flowers all different, all beautiful
He doesn’t just give us a tree, he gives us trees all different, all varieties, all beautiful
He doesn’t just give us an animal; he gives us thousands all different, all varieties all beautiful
He doesn’t just give us a human being, he gives us humans all different, all beautiful
Not only does he give he gives the air we breath, the earth is just the right distance from the sun, 100 yards nearer and we would burn, 100 yards further away and we would; freeze.
“Yours O lord is the greatness, the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour. For everything in heaven and on earth is yours.”
All things come from you- and of your own do we give you.
2) The generosity of God shown in Jesus Christ.
In 2 Cor 8v9 Paul
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich."
The pre-existent Christ, King of Kings and Lords of Lords took human flesh for our sakes and died on the cross so that we can now share in the life of heaven.
The ultimate act of generosity is Christ himself giving himself completely to us. That song we sang
“and I’ll I never know how much, it cost see my sin upon the cross”
If you know that in your life then there is the starting point for giving. If you don't know that for yourselves and would like to experience the grace of Christ in your life then kneel at the altar and pray to receive that grace. The foundation stone of giving is the gift of Christ himself for us and if that means nothing at all to you then you can go out of here and forget everything because giving is an irrelevance
“Yours O lord is the greatness, the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour. For everything in heaven and on earth is yours.”
Stewardship is this
That David when he stood before all the money given for the temple
He knew he was a steward, he took care of his possession on behalf of God. there is no What’s MINE is MINE
and I’m going to keep it
What’s MINE is YOURS- Its all YOURTS
As recognition of your generosity and my place in the creation I GIVE BACK a proportion of what is really already yours.
You know what a “steward” is? A steward is someone who takes care of something for someone else. If you’re a steward, you don’t own what you have. So, if I’m going to be a “steward for God” I need to make up my mind that I don’t own…
1. My Time 2. My Money 3. My Possessions 4. My relationships
I would define Christian stewardship.
“It is the response which the Church and men and women as individual people are led to make to God for all that he has given us and done for us above all in Christ Jesus.
We therefore look on the universe as God’s creation, we treat the earth and all its resource as God’s provision for the needs of humankind; we regard our lives, our powers and possessions as gifts from God to be enjoyed and used in his service.”
Or simply this
“Yours O lord is the greatness, the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour. For everything in heaven and on earth is yours.” – You have given us everything
All things come from you- and of your own do we give you.
Our giving is a response where we return by giving to you O Lord.
Everything that God has given us is a test of our loyalty to him what we do with our time, our possessions, our life, we hold in trust to God. Like Matthew 24 parable and no where do I believe this is more true than with our money. Infact I would say it is probably here , more than time and possessions that loyalty is shown.
I want to show you a £20 note fresh off the printing press. You couldn’t spend it.
What I do with this is of immense importance.
without reference to God I could say
It’s all mine/I worked for it / I earned it/I deserve it/I can do what I want with it …and when offering plate goes by, they say, I can give if I want to, but I don’t have to. If I feel led to give a pound …but it’s all mine, I can do what I want with it.
But the verse is
All this comes from you- and of your own Do I give you.
I want to suggest a radical alternative –and illustrate this is practice by cutting it into 10 pieces- each piece reminds me that the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.
The first cut/ first piece reminds me of the context in which I received this money - The world we live in – did I make that? Did I make the birds- the fish in the sea and the Grand Canyon and Everest- – no you did Lord
The second cut/ second piece reminds me The air I breathe did I create the air. I breathe- no of course not- its yours
3 The wonderful body I have- well it used to be - but doesn’t matter fingers hand all work together
4 The brain I have – I am pretty clever but did I make those neurons and electrical cells –we have no idea how to all works but it does? The blood vessels that are present in the brain are almost 100,000 miles in length. There are 100 billion neurons present in the brain.
5 I have gifts and talents which helped me earn that money I worked hard on those gifts and talents and yet they are originally a gift form you.
6 The creative spark that puts ideas into my mind
7 Time- I put a lot of time into earning that money – give me that Boy now- time is a gift of God it is limited resource you have
8 The water I drank - I know it was often flavoured with tea or malt .
9 The food I ate which tastes so good and gave strength so I could earn this money
10 The other people around us who I share my life withj– You have to be kidding
I have cut it into 10 things but I could have cut it into more 100’s more- God is so God he gives and gives and gives.
David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of our ancestor Israel, forever and ever. 11 Yours, O LORD, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; ........ “But who am I, and what are my people, that we should be able to make this freewill offering? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.” 1 Chronicles Chapter 29
In the Old Testament this was simply a tithe of 10% a response to God. The New Testament does not have tithing as we are not under law but grace. But the putting aside of a sum of money each week/month.
I give 10% of me net income to the church in my weekly collection.
Why? –
First reason- I once heard a south Indian evangelist, Azariah, take a £5 note (Inflation) and do what I have just because I am only too aware all things come from God although we are under grace it seems a reasonable thing to do. This God’s and I am just giving back. That was 40 years ago!
Second reason . It is important that I give an amount that hurts’. We are so good at tipping God and often we spend more on a bottle of wine than what we put in the collections- God does not need a tip. 10% hurts me- If I could certainly have afforded to go skiing this year! There has been a cost involved to me. I want to do more than tip God.
3rd reason giving is a barometer of our relationship with God.
Someone said “ a budget is theology in numbers” – in other words we see the reality of our relationship and priorities by where we put our stuff and our money”
Nick Baines Bishop of Bradford
another quote from Adrian Rogers who says it as it is
“a faith that hasn’t reached your wallet, probably hasn’t reached your heart.”
Lord you have reached my heart and I want to respond.
I could go on with other reasons for the stewardship tithe
Finish now
I want to go back to Azariah’s sermon for a moment.
In Beverly Minster I was on the finance committee and we had a meeting the week after his sermon, and we started to discuss what he had said.
The committee discussions started.
The next person.
But simply don’t make excuses practice stewardship – it is how churches grow, it is the Godly way.
What I want you to think about is simply this – consider your contribution to the price of our mission.
BUT
I don’t want people to give a penny because you think You have to ( that is law there is no rules in Christianity besides love)
I don’t want people to give a penny because you think You ought to ( that is obligation, no on is forced to do this- it is not a subscription you pay to be a member. There is no membership fee except the price paid by the blood of Christ)
I do want people to give what they feel called to. (If it is after your mortgage so be it- we don;t make rules) . We give in grace )- when are overwhelmed by the amazing generosity of God we will simply want to respond to that love. That is where churches start to run!
Ifs- a Reflection on Christian Giving
If I give nothing
I vote to close my church
If I give only to local support
I vote to stop missionary activity in the world
If I give proportionately
I give something even if out of necessity it is only small
If I give systematically
I allow my church to plan ahead
If I give sacrificially
I place a high value on Christian Ministry in the world
Hugo Cobham – Stewardship officer. Diocese of Lincoln
Please get a "Giving Pack" available in Church.
The text of a sermon preached 5th January 2020
I once saw a sketch about an American Baptist church, you know the type where the preacher really gets worked up and the congregation shout back- not very C/E
He’d shout out:-
"IF THIS CHURCH IS GOING TO SERVE GOD IT’S GOT TO GET DOWN ON ITS KNEES AND CRAWL!!!"
And the audience yelled back "Make it crawl preacher, make it crawl!
"AND ONCE THIS CHURCH HAS LEARNED TO CRAWL, IT’S GOT TO GET UP
ON ITS FEET AND WALK!!!"
"Make it walk preacher, make it walk" the audience moaned.
AND ONCE THIS CHURCH HAS LEARNED TO WALK ITS GOT BEGIN TO LEARN TO RUN!!!"
"Make it run, preacher, make it run!"
"AND IN ORDER TO RUN, ITS GOT TO REACH DEEP DOWN INTO POCKETS AND LEARN TO GIVE!!!"
(pause/ silence) "Make it crawl preacher, make it crawl."
A Church can’t grow if it doesn’t give. And if it doesn’t give… it’ll crawl. This is a sermon about giving but more importantly it is about a principal of giving which is stewardship. The price of our mission – will be all about money.
Proms this year
I started talking to a nice man – reading a commentary on Romans
Got talking turned out he used to teach me son in Sheffield
Next found out his brother lived in B in W. He texted in the interval and asked if he knew “Rev. Burley of Burley” – He said Yes I went once and all he talked about was money so I never went again!
My reply is that
- Jesus talked about money more than He did about Heaven and Hell combined.
- Jesus talked about money more than anything else except the Kingdom of God.
- 11 of 39 parables talk about money.
- 1 of every 7 verses in the Gospel of Luke talk about money.
I bet in the past when you did hear giving preach it would be along these lines.
CC gets about £2,625 a month in income – we pay out about £2,600
That sounds great except the price of our mission without the massive subsidy we receive is nearer to £8,400 a month. Another £6,000 a month is needed. PCC’s of which I have seen many, scratch their heads - In many churches you are taught that to respond to this you have a raffle or a coffee morning or a fundraiser or a jumble sale or whatever.
Before taking the offering a Vicar announced that the church had several unexpected expenses in the last month. He encouraged everyone to make a significant offering that morning, and as extra incentive he said that whoever gave the most that day would get to pick three hymns. The plate was bought round and was bought forward and on the top was a cheque for £1000
. The Vicar asked the donor to please come forward. After a brief pause an older woman came forward absolutely beaming. The Vicar thanked her profusely and then reminded her that she was entitled to pick three hymns. Without hesitation she pointed at three handsome young men and said, "I pick him, and him, and him”.
This morning I want to teach you what the Bible teaches we need to learn a new principle and as our mission grows we will need more and so I have to teach a principle which is the most important. It is the principle of stewardship.
This verse is vital 1 Chronicles 29 v 14 “Yours O lord is the greatness, the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour. For everything in heaven and on earth is yours.”
All things come from you- and of your own do we give you.
1 Chronicles 29: Is not the most popular book in the bible infact it is very boring - whoever wrote it has an obsession with listing/ chronicling things that is how he gets his name.
In I Chronicles 29, near the end of the first book, just before he is going to die David starts the first great appeal to build the temple in Jerusalem.
David believed that God deserved a Temple. At first God would not let him build the temple. He was not allowed to because as I Chronicles 28:2-3 tells us: David was a man of war & blood. That was not the type of man God wanted to have building the Temple. It was to be his son Solomon who was to do the building.
BUT David still believed that a temple for God should be built, AND SO (vs 2ff) he dedicated his own wealth to the project. And his vision is so INFECTIOUS that (vs 6) the other leaders dedicated money for the Temple. And then (vs 9) the people gave freely and wholeheartedly to the new Temple.
v9 The people rejoiced and gave wholeheartedly to the Lord.
Now we get to the highlight of this passage David stands before the whole congregation and makes a prayer.
Listen to the prayer.
V10- 11
He had grasped the most important fact about God’s amazing generosity to us. That all things in our life come from God and it is because of God that we give.
the absolute given ness of Christianity- it is all gift, everything in the world comes from God’s amazing generosity to us.
AND IT’S TRUE OF ALL CHRISTIANS – we give as we believe. I believe it is only as we realise the generosity of God that we are going to give.
1) The generosity of God in creation
God has given us the most wonderful and marvellous world. I hardly need to go on. He doesn’t just give us a flower, he gives us fields of flowers all different, all beautiful
He doesn’t just give us a tree, he gives us trees all different, all varieties, all beautiful
He doesn’t just give us an animal; he gives us thousands all different, all varieties all beautiful
He doesn’t just give us a human being, he gives us humans all different, all beautiful
Not only does he give he gives the air we breath, the earth is just the right distance from the sun, 100 yards nearer and we would burn, 100 yards further away and we would; freeze.
“Yours O lord is the greatness, the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour. For everything in heaven and on earth is yours.”
All things come from you- and of your own do we give you.
2) The generosity of God shown in Jesus Christ.
In 2 Cor 8v9 Paul
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich."
The pre-existent Christ, King of Kings and Lords of Lords took human flesh for our sakes and died on the cross so that we can now share in the life of heaven.
The ultimate act of generosity is Christ himself giving himself completely to us. That song we sang
“and I’ll I never know how much, it cost see my sin upon the cross”
If you know that in your life then there is the starting point for giving. If you don't know that for yourselves and would like to experience the grace of Christ in your life then kneel at the altar and pray to receive that grace. The foundation stone of giving is the gift of Christ himself for us and if that means nothing at all to you then you can go out of here and forget everything because giving is an irrelevance
“Yours O lord is the greatness, the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour. For everything in heaven and on earth is yours.”
Stewardship is this
That David when he stood before all the money given for the temple
He knew he was a steward, he took care of his possession on behalf of God. there is no What’s MINE is MINE
and I’m going to keep it
What’s MINE is YOURS- Its all YOURTS
As recognition of your generosity and my place in the creation I GIVE BACK a proportion of what is really already yours.
You know what a “steward” is? A steward is someone who takes care of something for someone else. If you’re a steward, you don’t own what you have. So, if I’m going to be a “steward for God” I need to make up my mind that I don’t own…
1. My Time 2. My Money 3. My Possessions 4. My relationships
I would define Christian stewardship.
“It is the response which the Church and men and women as individual people are led to make to God for all that he has given us and done for us above all in Christ Jesus.
We therefore look on the universe as God’s creation, we treat the earth and all its resource as God’s provision for the needs of humankind; we regard our lives, our powers and possessions as gifts from God to be enjoyed and used in his service.”
Or simply this
“Yours O lord is the greatness, the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour. For everything in heaven and on earth is yours.” – You have given us everything
All things come from you- and of your own do we give you.
Our giving is a response where we return by giving to you O Lord.
Everything that God has given us is a test of our loyalty to him what we do with our time, our possessions, our life, we hold in trust to God. Like Matthew 24 parable and no where do I believe this is more true than with our money. Infact I would say it is probably here , more than time and possessions that loyalty is shown.
I want to show you a £20 note fresh off the printing press. You couldn’t spend it.
What I do with this is of immense importance.
without reference to God I could say
It’s all mine/I worked for it / I earned it/I deserve it/I can do what I want with it …and when offering plate goes by, they say, I can give if I want to, but I don’t have to. If I feel led to give a pound …but it’s all mine, I can do what I want with it.
But the verse is
All this comes from you- and of your own Do I give you.
I want to suggest a radical alternative –and illustrate this is practice by cutting it into 10 pieces- each piece reminds me that the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.
The first cut/ first piece reminds me of the context in which I received this money - The world we live in – did I make that? Did I make the birds- the fish in the sea and the Grand Canyon and Everest- – no you did Lord
The second cut/ second piece reminds me The air I breathe did I create the air. I breathe- no of course not- its yours
3 The wonderful body I have- well it used to be - but doesn’t matter fingers hand all work together
4 The brain I have – I am pretty clever but did I make those neurons and electrical cells –we have no idea how to all works but it does? The blood vessels that are present in the brain are almost 100,000 miles in length. There are 100 billion neurons present in the brain.
5 I have gifts and talents which helped me earn that money I worked hard on those gifts and talents and yet they are originally a gift form you.
6 The creative spark that puts ideas into my mind
7 Time- I put a lot of time into earning that money – give me that Boy now- time is a gift of God it is limited resource you have
8 The water I drank - I know it was often flavoured with tea or malt .
9 The food I ate which tastes so good and gave strength so I could earn this money
10 The other people around us who I share my life withj– You have to be kidding
I have cut it into 10 things but I could have cut it into more 100’s more- God is so God he gives and gives and gives.
David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of our ancestor Israel, forever and ever. 11 Yours, O LORD, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; ........ “But who am I, and what are my people, that we should be able to make this freewill offering? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.” 1 Chronicles Chapter 29
In the Old Testament this was simply a tithe of 10% a response to God. The New Testament does not have tithing as we are not under law but grace. But the putting aside of a sum of money each week/month.
I give 10% of me net income to the church in my weekly collection.
Why? –
First reason- I once heard a south Indian evangelist, Azariah, take a £5 note (Inflation) and do what I have just because I am only too aware all things come from God although we are under grace it seems a reasonable thing to do. This God’s and I am just giving back. That was 40 years ago!
Second reason . It is important that I give an amount that hurts’. We are so good at tipping God and often we spend more on a bottle of wine than what we put in the collections- God does not need a tip. 10% hurts me- If I could certainly have afforded to go skiing this year! There has been a cost involved to me. I want to do more than tip God.
3rd reason giving is a barometer of our relationship with God.
Someone said “ a budget is theology in numbers” – in other words we see the reality of our relationship and priorities by where we put our stuff and our money”
Nick Baines Bishop of Bradford
another quote from Adrian Rogers who says it as it is
“a faith that hasn’t reached your wallet, probably hasn’t reached your heart.”
Lord you have reached my heart and I want to respond.
I could go on with other reasons for the stewardship tithe
- It is a tried and proven pattern of giving by godly people throughout the ages (regardless of cultures and income levels).
- It will bring God’s wisdom and order to your finances and will help you harness the dragon of materialism.
- It will allow you to experience God’s creative care and provisions in ways you would not otherwise experience.
- It will encourage your spiritual growth and trust in God.
- It will ensure you of treasure in heaven.
- It will strengthen the ministry, outreach, and stability of your local church.
- It will help provide the means to keep your Vicar and ministers in full-time Christian service.
- It will help accomplish new works in this place
- It is a cost but everyone who practices tithing receives blessings
Finish now
I want to go back to Azariah’s sermon for a moment.
In Beverly Minster I was on the finance committee and we had a meeting the week after his sermon, and we started to discuss what he had said.
The committee discussions started.
- Of course you can’t do it it is far too much to expect surely we should expect a tithe of about the national average giving for church goers which about 1%.
- He means you give 10% after you have paid your mortgage and your council tax and your electric bill and the wine bill and the children’s school fees. And then
The next person.
- I don’t give any money to the church but I do give my time.
- The next person of course you should give 10% and I give it to the freemasons because they are very charitable.
- The next person said I have always run the coffee morning which raises money for the church.
But simply don’t make excuses practice stewardship – it is how churches grow, it is the Godly way.
What I want you to think about is simply this – consider your contribution to the price of our mission.
BUT
I don’t want people to give a penny because you think You have to ( that is law there is no rules in Christianity besides love)
I don’t want people to give a penny because you think You ought to ( that is obligation, no on is forced to do this- it is not a subscription you pay to be a member. There is no membership fee except the price paid by the blood of Christ)
I do want people to give what they feel called to. (If it is after your mortgage so be it- we don;t make rules) . We give in grace )- when are overwhelmed by the amazing generosity of God we will simply want to respond to that love. That is where churches start to run!
Ifs- a Reflection on Christian Giving
If I give nothing
I vote to close my church
If I give only to local support
I vote to stop missionary activity in the world
If I give proportionately
I give something even if out of necessity it is only small
If I give systematically
I allow my church to plan ahead
If I give sacrificially
I place a high value on Christian Ministry in the world
Hugo Cobham – Stewardship officer. Diocese of Lincoln
Please get a "Giving Pack" available in Church.
line Drawing from Rev John King see https://timstking.wixsite.com/website
|
HALL HIRE
Carole 07931858563 Links Church of England Diocese of London Parish of St . Mary and St. Peter Staines |
