Latest revision as of 23:13, 25 May 2024

Theological Proposition/Focus:

Homiletical Proposition/Application: Within the Church local congregations are resourced by Christ through the abundant generosity of the members.

Introduction: Memory Verse, Hebrew 10:25

not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.^[1]

Image: Winning at Sim City - don't make the mistake of laying out all your roads at once

I used to really enjoy the computer game Sim city. I enjoyed playing mayor for a day. I especially enjoyed the work of planning out and laying out the city. There was nothing better than having a well-organized city with every road straight and the grid lines perfectly lined up. However, you also had to be careful. I remember one day I started a game and thought to myself that I was going to lay out everything ahead of time to make my city very organized. I got out the road tool and started perfectly laying out all of my roads across the entire map. I quickly realized my mistake. Those roads cost money to maintain and within a very short time my city, while nearly everything was designed well was out of money because I didn't understand that the game charged me a maintenance fee for my roads.

Within the local assembly of believers that we call the church we also need to understand the resources that God has given us and understanding those resources we need to act with a great deal of integrity to ensure that we being wise stewards of the resources God has given us.

Text: Various, read before each main point.

It is hard for churches to talk about tithing largely because it is hard to strike a balance.

Some churches only talk about tithing. Other churches never talk about tithing.

It is like pendulum, we don't want to be like those churches that preach health and wealth to all who freely give, but we also need to teach about financial giving. The purpose today is the learn about the financial resources that Christ has provided his church.

The reality is that while Christ owns the cattle on a thousand hills, he has decided to let each of you be part of his resourcing of the church.

We here in this room bear a responsibility to steward the finances with which we have been entrusted and part of that stewardship comes when we give generously to our church.

Why give? Because it is commanded, why else? Because God is working in our church and we have been invited to be part of that work.

Preview: What we are going to see is that the normative practice for Christ followers is purposeful regular financial giving; but more there are times when they may be asked to give more for special projects. Ultimately, the church is called to provide for those whose vocation is the Gospel.

As we talk today I want you to not just consider the present but consider the future what might God have in store for our church and how might you be part of that future?

Body

The normative practice of Christ's followers is purposeful regular financial giving (1 Corinthians 16:1-4).

The Context of 1 Cor 16:1-4 - the church expanded rapidly after Pentacost but 40 years later the church in Jerusalem faced financial struggle.

In order to understand 1 Corinthians 16 it is helpful to think a little about the history of the early church. After the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost the church went through a period of rapid growth and expansion. During this period of rapid growth many members sold their possessions and turned the money from such sales over to the church to use in support of the members and the growth. Now nearly 40 years later the church in Jerusalem found itself in financial hardship.

Perhaps the church had expended all its resources for growth.

I am speculating, but I suspect that the resources expended in the early church came at a cost and Paul noting this cost asked the other churches to come together to provide for those who had earlier graciously given to enable to early church to grow.

The command to give is not a specific local phenomenon.

I find verse 1 to be telling. Paul reminded the Corinthians that the command to give was not something he was asking for from one particular church. Giving was the normative practice that all the churches were doing.

Something we need to understand is that giving is normal for a church. A healthy church is a giving church.

The timing of giving has cultural significance.

Something else I want you to notice is in verse 2. There was a specific time when giving took place, Sunday. To understand this part of the passage we must understand that people were paid daily. There was no notion of every other week payments etc. Also, there were not refrigerators and so people typically spent their paycheck on food for the day. People literally lived paycheck to paycheck and that was essentially a daily thing. When Paul calls on people to lay aside saving up this is counter cultural. Furthermore, by specifically laying up each paycheck Paul is removing emotional hype from the giving process. Giving is regular and purposeful not emotional and random.

The command to give is in proportion to one's income.

Here is a reality. Paul writes about giving more than any other New Testament writer but he does not use the word tithe when talking about giving. Some have taken this to mean that the tithe is not something that a Christian should worry about. I want to instead point something out to you. The giving was to be regular and "in keeping with your income." The idea here is in proportion with or "whatever one has prospered in." Here is the key. Giving should be in measure with what one has a proportion to how God has blessed. So, what does it look like to give in proportion to what one has? Well, we already have a biblical model throughout the Old Testament, to was called the tithe! Perhaps Paul didn't use the word tithe because the people already knew what Paul meant when he commanded proportional giving!

Image: puppy commercials

I don't like the commercials on TV asking me to support the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They are completely based on emotional appeal

The commercials are so sad and then they finish with a call to support. You are stuck, are you going to let the poor dog suffer or do you call the number and help the dog out? This is an emotional appeal! And this is the sort of thing Paul prevented from happening in Corinth.

By commanding regular, proportional giving, Paul is eliminating emotional appeals!

The command to give is in order that fellow Christians might be blessed.

So why do we give? Well because it is commanded but also in order that other Christians might be blessed. The Jerusalem church had blessed really the entire world with the message of salvation. Now, the Corinthians were given the opportunity to give back, to bless the Jerusalem church if you will.

Acts 20:35 states

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

^[2]

Being able to give is in fact a blessing.

Moreover, we must understand that

Day-to-day operations take money

As I talk through this sermon I want to also cast vision for our church.

Something I want us to consider is just what day to day operations cost.

• It costs is $256 a day just to operate our facility.

This does not take into account any salaries or anything like that.

• Things like water, electrical, gas, maintenance, lawn care, $250 a day. almost $94000 a year.
• 20% of our church budget is spent on just upkeep of our building.

So why do I tell you this? Because I want us to understand how important it is that we give. We give to the church purposefully and regularly because simple operational costs take resources. As we cast vision for our church we must keep in mind that there are some fixed costs. Things that are essentially impossible to eliminate. No matter what we do we really need to anticipate that something like 20% of our budget will need to be spent on keeping the lights on.

MTR: Evaluate your giving. Are you giving regularly, intentionally, proportionally, and lovingly?

There are times when the people of God are called upon to provide for special projects (Exodus 35:4-29).

Shortly after leaving Egypt during the Exodus the people of God had an important need arise. They needed a proper place to worship God. The solution was the Tabernacle but the resources would need to be gathered. I want us to take some time to look at the process here.

The people of God brought financial resources.

Unlike the tithe which was purposeful and regular there were also times when the people were asked to simply give an offering as their heart prompted them (25:2).

The resources that the people gave were items of significant value.

These were offerings beyond the tithe.

Something to consider, the people were required to make sacrifices and otherwise support the Levites in the worship of God. This was an offering in addition to those requirements. As an offering this was at the prompting of the people's hearts but it was still something they were asked to do.

Day to day worship takes resources but beyond the day-to-day there are also special projects which require additional resources.

The people of God used their skills.

Something really special about the Tabernacle was that not only were the people called upon to offer up their financial resources as an offering, they were also called upon to offer their skills.

Verse 10 tells us that all who were skilled were asked to come and help.

A special project often involves more than just financial resources but also special skills and that is exactly what happened during the Exodus. A need arose and the people of God went above and beyond in order that they might meet that need.

Special projects take additional offerings.

Finishing up the sanctuary

We are currently in the midst of finishing one special project.

• We began the year with a construction loan of $378,000.
• We have worked over the first quarter to pay down that amount and I am pleased to report that we now owe $213,000.

But here is the thing I want to tell you. Right now, because of the math of compound interest, we are at a stage of loan repayment where if you or a group of you, or really anyone gives $1500 we essentially get $1000 extra on the life off the loan. Let me say it differently, a payment of $1500 today is equivalent to paying off an entire months payment of $2500.

• 1500->$2500
• 17000 -> 1 year

A payment of $17,000 essentially knocks an entire year off of our loan. We are down to less than 10 years on our 20 year loan but if people give generously above and beyond their commitments toward our loan we could quickly make that even less. But why would we want to do that?

As a church we need to consider what special projects God might have for us next.

We have a beautiful piece of land on the north property. What might God want us to do with that property? I will dream for just a moment. I would love to see us erect a nice looking perhaps steel building on the property. We could have a multi-use gym fellowship area. We could have some storage. We could have some additional classroom type space. I would love to see us set up an area that could be used for recovery ministry. Specifically, there is a group in Omaha called freeway ministries. Freeway ministers to the homeless population by providing a hot meal, clothing, and a worship service. The right multuse building could be used by Freeway ministries to allow us to be part of ministering to an unreached population in Lincoln.

So, what would it cost to make this dream a reality? A church that wants it to be a reality. "But you didn't give us a number" some might say. "Yes, you are very astute. I didn't give you a number because we don't need a number we need a church that wants to take the next step." God already has the money to do the project we just need to have the vision.

So, what should we do

MTR: Evaluate your offerings. Are you generously looking for opportunities to offer and serve.

We need to pay off our loan. That is a first step and we are making good progress. But as we make progress on the loan let's cast vision. Let's think about what God might have next and let's not just cast vision for us here in this room, lets cast vision for our city.

Okay, one final area of resourcing that I want to talk about. Let me preface this by saying that you all are taking very good care of me. As a church you have supported me financially and God has blessed me abundantly. My next point is not a plea for a raise! My next point is an important reminder as we look toward the future.

The church is called upon to provide for those whose vocation is the Gospel (1 Timothy 5:17-18).

First Timothy is held to be a book written to Pastor Timothy aimed as instructing Timothy in the pastoral affairs of the church. Therefore, it is fitting that Paul would address the area of pastoral compensation. Pastors are a resource that Christ provides to His Church and it is important that a church provide for their pastor.

The text states that

Elders who lead, preach, and teach are worthy of double honor.

Who are the elders, πρεσβύτεροι?

First we need to understand the word πρεσβύτεροι. This word in Scripture that we often translate as elder does not refer to just someone who is aged. The word can refer to age but across Jewish and Christian circles, and even in non Judeo-Christian systems the word really came to be a title for an official office. I don't want to get to into the weeds here but elder, pastor, and bishop are all equivalent titles used for one office, the office of pastor. The text here is about pastors and the the statement is that pastors are worthy of double-honor.

What is double honor?

I have heard all sorts of explanations of what double honor actually is. I have heard people say that a pastor should be paid twice as much as the average salary and I have heard others talk about making sure the pastor is well cared for. I don't want to get into the weeds here and as I stated the church has taken care of me very well.

What I do want to emphasize is that a church should support the pastors and should do so at a reasonable level of support.

Let me just go out a little further on a limb and try not to cut the limb off out from under me. I have heard of congregations who debate whether the pastor is worth $x dollars or make statements of "well the pastor will make more then me if we pay him that much." Really two thoughts come to mind. First, we need high standards for our pastors so that they are worth the money. Second, if God is blessing a pastor shouldn't a person be excited?

You take care of me, but I want us to be ready to support our next pastor we bring on staff.

Again, you all take great care of me but I also want us as a church to be prepared to generously support our pastors. There may, hopefully will, come a day when we get to hire another member to our pastoral staff. When that day comes I want us to be thinking in the back of our heads "double-honor!" You see, it is important that we recognize that

The work of a pastor, while often a passion of the pastor, still deserves the label "work".

I don't know how to explain what the term "work" means to a pastor but I am going to try.

I love my job and have no desire to do anything else. I enjoy coming to church and I enjoy interacting with you all. Part of the reason I knew I was being called to ministry was because I found myself devoting all of my free time to ministry when I had a non-ministry job. Ministry is my passion, really it is my life. But, it is also work. Several weeks ago Emily asked me "do you ever feel like just not going to church on Sunday." "No" I told her "I have no choice but to go to church so why would I let my feelings dictate otherwise? but" I continued "there are time when when going to church energizes and invigorates me and there are times when going to church takes energy away from me."

Being pastor does require that I work and Paul makes it clear, those who work deserves wages.

We need to be prepared to support our current and future pastors.

I am casting vision here and before I do so I want to first tell you that I have discussed this with our ministry staff. I am not planning to surprise them. But let me cast vision for a moment.

As a church we currently have 237 members, 56 children of members, and 66 regular attenders (359).

We further have a group of people who participate occasionally and a list of people who are visitors but who have not attended for long-enough yet to be moved into our regular attender category. So, we have approximately, 359 people that we as a church take responsibility for. We have a wonderful group of 8 deacons who faithfully serve, we have a several part-time staff members who handle the administration of the church. We have a faithful worship and kids ministry director, and then two pastors on staff. One pastor is full-time and the other part-time. Why do I say this?

Conventional wisdom says you need 1 ministry position for every 75-100 people to keep growing. Our ratio is off, we are at 1 to 130 right now.

We need to think about next steps. One next step is going to be working toward making David's position a full time position and the other step we need to be thinking about is bringing on another pastor to do discipleship and family ministry.

MTR: Determine to support our pastors and recognize the need for pastors.

1. ↑ NIV
2. ↑ NIV