THE  VIEW  FROM  THE  PULPIT:

“Sharing Our Gifts for God’s Mission as We LOVE – EQUIP – and SHARE!”

(our OCTOBER STEWARDSHIP Emphasis)

“Give, and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  [Luke 6:38]

     Are you ready to share your gifts for the sake of God’s mission to the world?   Is God first in your life?  Do you realize that God is not just the “Maker of heaven and earth” (as we confess in the Creeds), but also the “Maker and the OWNER of heaven and earth!”?

When we talk about Christian stewardship, we are talking about the management of all that God owns – and He owns EVERYTHING!  So what we are referring to in Christian Stewardship is the management of all the resources that God provides: financial (yes, money!), material, time, and spiritual – all the gifts that God entrusts to us.  And the goal of Christian Stewardship is to manage these resources in such a way as to accomplish God’s purpose with them – and thus bring glory to Him.

When we refer to stewardship at Resurrection, we actually are talking about RETURNING to the Lord that which is His in the first place.  In essence, we are proclaiming Christ through our offerings, and responding the needs of God’s Kingdom in a multitude of ways.  Two methods of this RETURNING are well described in the Bible: (1) “first-fruit giving” and (2) “planned proportionate giving.”

First-fruit Giving acknowledges that God has FIRST PLACE in our lives.  He comes before government (taxes), family (food, clothing, shelter), and self (items we want rather than we need).  When we as God’s people return to the Lord the first and best of all that God has given us, we are proclaiming that God deserves the highest honor in our lives.  When we speak to one another at Resurrection about returning to God the first and best, we are proclaiming Good News to one another.

Why would a Christian want to give God first place in his/her life, and return to the Lord the first and best?  It is because God has loved us – and forgiven us in His mercy – in spite of what we are: sinful, ungrateful, selfish people.  Like the psalmist, the child of God proclaim: “What shall I render to the Lord for all His bounties to me?”

We also set aside a planned percentage of God’s gifts to us, realizing that our lives are intimately connected with God.  Though God is the OWNER OF ALL, He allows us to take freely for our own needs from what belongs to Him.  We surely do not want to give mere “leftovers” to further His work through our congregation.  Instead, we set aside a generous percentage (a tithe) to proclaim our trust in His promises to provide for us.  One of God’s great promises to us is our Congregational Memory Verse for October:  “Give, and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  [Luke 6:38]  Do we take this promise seriously?

How often have we heard the statement: “Put your money where you month is?”  Let us not imagine that we can proclaim God just with our words!  If we praise Him with our lips, let us as God’s people also put our dollars, material resources, talents and time which God has entrusted to us where our mouth is!!

Resurrection can be resourced and equipped to carry out its mission and ministry with renewed strength and vigor!  We can be a church alive and afire for the Lord – LOVING the Savior – EQUIPPING each other for the work of ministry – and SHARING the Good News of Jesus the Savior!

 

“Sharing Our Gifts for God’s Mission as We LOVE – EQUIP – and SHARE!”

 

Your Fellow Co-Worker, in Christ,

Pastor Hank