Sermon 125
Sermon by John Revess at Wonersh on Sunday 20th
April 2008
Stewardship Review – The Grace of
Giving
Let’s start by setting out what I hope my talk and
our focus on 2 Cor8 this evening will achieve. I do believe the stewardship
issues we are discussing tonight can lead to spiritual growth. This is a
sermon, where I pray that you will be transformed as the Holy Spirit speaks to
you.
Let’s start with something more light-hearted
though: Powerpoint
Slides
Do Health and Safety at work rules get on your
nerves? They really get on my mine, because I think it feels like a job
creation scheme! Lots of petty admin. I attend meeting in hotels where somebody
announces on stage where the fire exits are even though we can see where they
are the signs are well lit. I’m sure you have your own examples……..
Anyway have a look at these examples where I think
Health and Safety execs could rightfully add some value…….
What’s the link with our theme of financial
stewardship, well it tough to visualise what precarious looks like in finances
but I hope now a picture is worth 1000 words, pie charts or numbers!
So you have probably flicked through the handout –
what does it mean to you? I hope you draw three conclusions:
·
There is some sort of financial issue in our church
·
our Church is serving our community
·
You may have been nudged into thinking about your
financial priorities
Q asked by Sophie, my 18 year old daughter who
passed her driving test a few weeks ago:
when should I fill up my car with petrol? A good question when you think about it and
particularly in her case as a student she never wants to fill it up herself!
How full was your petrol tank when you last filled
up?
Petrol is the fuel we need to get from a to b, we
cannot ignore it. The important purpose of having a car is to get somewhere and
we have to accept it requires fuel to do so.
Worse than that, we cannot even control the fuel consumption of our cars
it is simply a given for the car we own.- which we have to accept, in.
So fuel consumption and the need to refuel is a
necessary requirement of achieving our purpose. Likewise the running of our
church where the financial contributions we make, is the fuel on which we pay
for the financial commitments of our Church. As the car runs out of fuel and
stops, so will our church without sufficient financial support from all of us.
So I recommend that Sophie fills up when the fuel gauge shows that the car is
using its reserves. The same is true for our Church finances, we are now using
our reserves and it is time to fill up the tank…..
I would like to leverage my car analogy to make one
more parallel. How does your monthly fuel bill compare with your monthly giving
to Church? This isn’t a biblical principal – I couldn’t find Paul’s teaching on
fuel theology so call it John’s Law on Giving - if your giving is less than
your fuel bill during the period it has taken to empty your fuel tank then you
are not giving enough! In times of inflation like now, church costs are also
increasing so its time to increase……and so on.
What does 2cor mean for us and in our Church
situation? There are no answers here on how much to give. The focus is entirely
on our personal attitudes towards giving.
He refers to what he calls the demand and supply sides
of fundraising. We are most familiar
with the demand side of fundraising. Comic Relief is a great example of how to
present the need very effectively: the
need we see “demands” our response, This demand side is absolutely crucial but
Schervish also talks about the “supply side” in fundraising, the motivation of you and I to give our
money. Fundraising needs to bring together both the need (the demand side) and
the motivation to give (the supply side).
This helps us to understand Paul’s approach in 2 Corinthians
8. We are not told where the money is going in these verses but it is to
relieve Jerusalem Christians from poverty. It may have been persecution or
possibly the economic strain of caring for others.
This demand side never disappears from view but Paul’s
emphasis in 2 Corinthians 8 is upon the “supply side” of the equation – the
spiritual motivation that should underlie our giving. Paul wants to grow mature, obedient givers
not extract one off gifts from givers moved emotionally by the plight of people
far away.
Paul concentrates on the need of
Christians to give. Paul sketches the fine example set by the
churches of
This is a very different way of thinking about money! To
achieve what Paul strives for we need do encourage biblical thinking not
worldly thinking. How we handle all our money is primarily about discipleship.
If this was true for Paul 2000 years ago then it is manifestly more transparent
now. Our attitude towards money in the western world is like trying to drink
seawater. We will never be able to satisfy our thirst no matter how much we drink,
for it will poison us! We will never
have enough money to buy all we want, holiday all we want, protect our future
lifestyle and do all we want. Sadly, as our income grows so will our
aspirations, and it often shrinks the space available for grace, and
generosity.
To excel in the grace of giving is to acknowledge God’s gift
of grace. The Macedonians cannot give enough! Nothing is too much for those who
really love. For them, giving is an act of grace, an act of love, an act of
thanksgiving and finally a privilege. Paul sees the Macedonians generosity as
the result of God’s grace in their lives.
I do recommend a booklet
called THE MONEY REVOLUTION which lays out 5 principles for handling our
money:
Please see me later and I
will be pleased to order some
The question for us is whether we are channels of God’s love and
generosity or whether we are inhibiting it?
Have we become complacent about our giving almost mechanical
even. Standing orders, planned giving, event the concept of tithing. Paul’s
teaching is radical…..
We can sometimes forget what a privilege and what an
opportunity it is to be able to respond to God’s overwhelming generosity and
gift of grace.
Bishop
Jack Nicholls, Bishop of Sheffield, once said “Our generosity is measured
not by what we give but by what we have left when we have given.” If generosity
is measured by how much we are left with after our giving, then very few of us
are really generous. By that measure the poorest will often be the most
generous. The real challenge to us is to reflect and review our giving not
based on what we currently give, or the church needs but in the light of God’s
grace and generosity to us.
For all of us here we have the opportunity to increase our
financial giving and see this bear fruit in our church, and in our world. But
more than that we can see ourselves change. The grace of giving can helps
transform us into being more content, more joyful and more trusting in our
relationship with God.
Now’s that what I meant at
the beginning of this evening about spiritual growth.
Let’s step back and
summarise what we have covered of this challenging area and how it relates to
our stewardship focus in our Church…..Rather than just seeing a need
to slightly rejig our financial giving priorities, let’s open up our lives to
increasing our financial giving we will see ourselves change for the better.
Amen