2Corinthians 9:1-12

Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written,

“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
 his righteousness endures forever.”

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.

Luke 21:1-4

Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box,  and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.  And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

The scriptures that I chose for today both talk about money.  But, I don’t want you to understand this as message as my “sermon on the amount” this is a message about the spirit in which we give. I do believe that the tithe; ten percent, of our time, treasure and talent, is the minimum God requires of us. I also believe that we should give more than the minimum.

God does not want us to give according to what is written. God wants us to give from the heart. The widow, placing the two coins in the treasury for the temple gives from her heart a gift of extravagance. She acknowledges the blessings in her life and understands that God has blessed her and because she is filled with love she gives extravagantly back to God through the church.

Do you trust in God like the widow? Recognize here that it is easier to preach ten sermons than to follow one. The widow totally trusts in God; she puts all she has to live on into the treasury. I don’t trust God like that! I know some of what God has blessed me with, but I recognize that I have blessings in my life that I am not aware of right now. I admit there is room in my life to grow in my trust of God.

This story of the widow also points out to me the idea that less often is more. The widow lives so simply that it is easier for her to trust God. She is not worried about her clothes, her car payment, the utilities for her house, credit card bills, or Christmas gifts. She lives totally dependent on God for her survival. With out the extras in her life she can concentrate more fully on her relationship with God. Does she know where her next meal is coming from? Most likely not, but she is confident that when she needs nourishment God will provide for her.

Now to walk the thin line between Church and State; I believe too many of us depend on the government to do things for us that we should be doing for each other. Government should be responsible for some basic necessities for the people. Where do you draw the line? It seems to me the more we depend on the government, the less we depend on God. We are very active as a community of faith in this community in reaching out to the hungry. We have taken seriously the needs of the disadvantaged in Oneida and are working with systems and structures already in place to provide healthy safe food to people in the area. Not all churches are doing this and we could do it better than we do. There is room for more involvement and room for growth. What should we depend out government to provide for us and to what extent should we depend on the systems and structure of Government to provide for our needs? When do we stop depending on government and depend on God and each other?

Paul says something very important in the scripture from second Corinthians. “Each one must give from his heart, not reluctantly or out of compulsion. God loves a cheerful giver.” When was the last time you looked cheerfully at your offering envelope? When was the last time you felt blessed to be able to put something in the offering envelope? Giving to the church and the ministries we do through the community of faith should be a blessing. Yet, many of us do not see our giving as a blessing, rather we see it either as the right thing to do or a responsibility.

Further, too many of us believe the only thing we have to do is toss money to the church and that’s “good enough”. God challenges us to go further. Remember Paul tells us that if we sow sparingly we will reap sparingly. What we give matters to God. If we believe that God is everywhere, knows all things, and sees all things. God knows your heart.

Think back to the story of creation in the Book of Genesis. God works six days and takes the seventh for a rest. As followers of Christ this is our model; 5 days to work at our careers, one day of work at home and a day to rest our spirit for the week to come, a day of Sabbath. God worked days one through five and at the end of each of those days God said the work was good. On the sixth day, God creates humankind and at the end of the day God says the work is very good. Do you see the progression? God creates out of the chaos and creates, God seperates light from dark, waters above from water below, land from water, creates plants and animals, and then after God honed a skill set of creating; God creates humankind and humankind is created in the image of God. God was in pursuit of excellence. Even after creation God pursued excellence. Humankind did not move in the same direction as God so God sent the waters of the flood and started over with Noah and his family.  God selected Abraham and made of him a great nation. Good took a nation out of Egypt and set them up in the Promised Land and tried to place strong role models in search of relationships with God to rule the people. Men like David, women like Deborah, people with the skill set to lead. And when these people failed, God sent his son to help us learn and deepen our faith and trust. Now God sets the pursuit of excellence on our shoulders.

God desires a deep meaningful relationship with you. All around us are reminders of God’s faithfulness to us: the fruits of creation, the wisdom of doctors, the knowledge of professors, the strength of leaders and the love of family. All these things and more point to the God who loves us. Each and every one of us fails to give God the recognition of all the blessings in our lives. We catch some of the blessings, we might even admit, after the fact, that a “bad” situation was just what we needed to draw us deeper into relationship with God. Through all that I still believe that we miss some of the blessings God pours out on us.

God says don’t be so stingy, give a little back to me. Just trust me with a portion of what I have given you and see what I will make happen with what you trust to me.

It’s not just money. God says trust me with a bit of your time and a bit of your ability and I will multiply them. Remember that Jesus says we can do things, even bigger than he did, if we just had a bit of faith as big as a mustard seed (Matthew 17:19-21). Further more Paul says, “I can do all tings through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13). If we truly believe that and if we really want the relationship with God that our hearts and souls crave, it begins with trusting God with a portion of our time treasure and talent. God has given us all the opportunity to see the extravagance of God’s blessings. The next step is up to us. I ask you to boldly take your next step and trust God with just a bit more than you are right now. See how God uses that, blesses you, and multiplies the gift.

What is Stewardship

1Chronicles 29:1-9

1Furthermore David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great: for the palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.

2Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colors, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.

3Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God, I have of mine own proper good, of gold and silver, which I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house,

4Even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses withal:

5The gold for things of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and for all manner of work to be made by the hands of artificers. And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?

6Then the chief of the fathers and princes of the tribes of Israel, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the rulers of the king's work, offered willingly,

7And gave for the service of the house of God of gold five thousand talents and ten thousand drams, and of silver ten thousand talents, and of brass eighteen thousand talents, and one hundred thousand talents of iron.

8And they with whom precious stones were found gave them to the treasure of the house of the Lord, by the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite.

9Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.

Psalm 54

1O God, save me by your

name,

and vindicate me by your might.

2O God,

hear my prayer;

give ear to the words of my mouth.

3For

strangers

have risen against me;

ruthless men

seek my life;

they do not set God before themselves. Selah

4Behold,

God is my helper;

the Lord is the upholder of my life.

5He will return the evil to my enemies;

in your

faithfulness

put an end to them.

6With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;

I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.

7For he has delivered me from every trouble,

and my eye has

looked in triumph on my enemies.

I know some of you don’t like to talk about money in worship. The facts are that Jesus talks about money about 1 in 3 messages. I talk about money far less than Jesus does. The one out of three Sunday’s would be 17 messages a year!

So, this year I will give you a choice, 6 weeks of me putting a little bit about finances and stewardship into the messages or I can preach straight finances for the rest of the church year. For the next 6 weeks or so we are going to talk about stewardship. By the way, there are 7 weeks left in the church year and I will be gone one of them, so your going to hear a little something about finances for the rest of the church year.

Much of stewardship has to do with money. If you listen to my prayer of thanksgiving following the offering, you will here me talk about time treasure and talent. These three things make up stewardship; giving our time to serve God, sharing the talents God has blessed us with and, giving some of the treasure we have been blessed with back to God. Stewardship is one way we fulfill our mission statement “Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world”

Back up in the story of the building of the temple; 2Samuel chapter 7 talks about David going to Nathan the prophet and asking Nathan if it is acceptable for David to build the temple. Nathan at first says, “sounds like a good idea” but God gives Nathan a vision that night. God tells Nathan to go back to David and tell David that God will decide who and when a house for God is built and “guess what David, you are not the person; and now is not the time.”

If we back up to 1Chronicles 28 we read about David telling the nation of Israel the story about David and Nathan in regards to building the Temple.

David says in 1Chronicles28:3 that God did not want David to build the temple because David was a worrier and had shed blood. God chose Solomon. Think about this: How would you feel if you were David? Good enough to fight battles for God but not good enough to build God’s Temple

How would you react to God after that? What would you do when God comes to you and says I want your son to build me a temple?

David gives his best and encourages all the nation of Israel to do the same.

David puts God first. First rule of stewardship put God first.

Jesus teaches that we cannot serve two masters. We have to recognize money as one of the tools in our toolbox to fulfill our mission of making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Deuteronomy 26:2 tells us that we should give God the first fruit. God deserves our best, not our leftovers. When you get your paycheck, give God the fair portion first. What is the fair portion? The tithe, 10% this is the MINIMUM fair portion.

People this is a matter of trust. What god do you put first in your life?

Do you trust God enough that you will put God first and live into, have faith in God that God will give you what you need? I am asking you to believe in God, not your own wisdom, not your government, not the Lions, Rotary, Moose, Elks, Owls or Kiwanis clubs; but God. These are all groups that do good things, but they are not the Church and they are not the gods we should be worshiping. David gives to God not just the minimum tithe.

David gives extravagantly. David gives willingly; gold and silver and precious stone from his own treasure, over and above. Notice David’s passion for God. Again if you study the scripture you will see that David is described as a man searching for God’s heart. You will also see where David’s unbridled passion gets him into trouble. Where is your passion? David challenges the nation of Israel to be passionate for God and to express their passion by giving to the building of the Temple.

So far our rules tell us we have to put God first that God deserves our best; and the tithe is the minimum, God wants us to give extravagantly of our blessings. We give extravagantly to our passions. I also mentioned that God asks for our time, treasure and talent. Third rule: God values relationship with us; that means more than just money. We need to give our time and our talent as well as our treasure to God.

David challenges the people of Israel with this. He says here is the treasure I give, who is going to put it together? Who has the talent? Where are the stone cutters and the carpenters? Who will give their talent to building the Temple and making a place worthy of God? Who will give of their time to build the Temple?

First three rules of stewardship:

         God first

         Tithe is the minimum

         Stewardship is time, treasure and talent

Fourth rule: Stewardship requires vision. Solomon may have been chosen to build the temple but David had the vision and the plan. Stewardship requires vision. It would be easy for me to just stand here and say, “Give to the church because God says to”.  Let’s be honest, people don’t give to a budget, they give to a vision. David paints a verbal picture of what the temple will be. Picture it: gold, silver, bronze, wood and onyx, and other precious stone; marble in abundance. This is the picture David paints of the Temple, beauty, opulence, nothing but the best.

Our mission is to make Disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world. How are we going to do that? How are we going to do that in Oneida? How are we going to do that as the Upper New York Annual Conference? How are we going to do that as the Northeast jurisdiction?

How are we going to do that as the United Methodist Church? I plan to paint you a picture of how I see us transforming this neighborhood around St. Paul’s.

I hope you will join me in transforming the world through our stewardship.

Over the next seven weeks you will hear about ministries in our church and the places I hope you will join me in going. I hope as we explore these four rules of Stewardship you will grasp my vision and go forward with me and lead me to places of ministry that I do not yet see. This faith community has power; if we use that power we can transform the world around us as well as distant places we may never see.

I hope you will join me.