Heart Matters: A Heart for Ministry

Pastor Burcham's Sermon

  Sunday, November 19, 2006

There is a connection between what we do and the ministry we accomplish. We give because of what God has given to us. That's a firmly established fact that has to be the motivation in our heart, that we give back to God as a recognition, as a response to all He has given to us, all of our physical blessings and certainly the spiritual blessing of forgiveness and eternal life. We give as a demonstration that we trust God, that we trust He's going to take care of all of our needs. We give willingly, cheerfully. And God brings joy to our heart. But part of the joy is seeing what God does with the gifts we offer back to Him. Part of the joy is seeing how God uses those resources to change lives, how God uses those resources to carry out His ministry.

This morning, we're going to wrap things up from Heart Matters as we discuss about what the attitude in our heart should be as we give back to God. And the last section is to have a heart for ministry. And to have a heart for ministry means we support that ministry. Now I have to tell you, each and every year that comes around when I speak on financial matters, it's always a little bit of a strange time for me. I don't mind it, but it's kind of like going to the doctor for an annual checkup. You know, when you go to the doctor for the annual checkup, he or she will usually poke and prod and push here and there and all the while, say, “Now does that hurt? Well, how about here? Does that hurt?” And every now and then, someone will say, “Oh, hey, that hurt.” One of two things happened. Either the doctor pushed too hard or, more than likely, we better run some tests. It's not supposed to hurt there. It's kind of how I feel this morning. I may do a little pokiug and prodding and pushing. One or two things are going to happen. Either I'm going to push too hard and you're going to say, “Hey, that hurts there.” Or maybe it's an area you need to take a look at. But consider this, even if the doctor pushes too hard, his intent was not to cause pain. His intent was to keep you healthy.

The same thing is true for me this morning. If I push too hard, my intent is not to cause pain, certainly not to cause guilt. It is that I want you to have a spiritually healthy life, and I firmly believe a key factor in our relationship with God and our spiritual relationship with God comes from the attitude we have of giving back to God a portion of what He's given to us. Scripture dedicates so much time to this topic, and scripture is so clear on this topic. I'm convinced it's critical to our relationship with God to have the right kind of attitude, to have a trusting heart, to have a joy-filled heart, and to have a heart for ministry.

So this morning, let's focus in on having a heart for ministry. But what I'd like to do is a little bit different this morning. Instead of me standing up here and preaching, how about if I just sit down and we have a conversation. Is that alright? A little bit different today, and we're going to go from God's Word to understand what it is to have a heart for ministry.

We're going to go back to the Old Testament and the Old Testament church, and we're going to learn from King Hezekiah and the things he did and how the people had a heart for the ministry and how they supported the ministry. And we need to have a little bit of background information, though. The background information is this: You have to understand the point of history of the people of Israel at this time. Long gone are the days of King Solomon and King David, all the glory days. And what we have right now is a series of kings. And if you remember at all any of 2 Chronicles, 1 Kings, and 2 Kings, you have a good king and you have a bad king. Then you have another bad king, another bad king, and then you got a good king. Then you got a bad king again.

Well, Hezekiah's dad was one of the bad boys. He was not a good king in God's sight. He did all kinds of evil in God's sight. In fact, he desecrated the temple. He brought in all the false gods and all the idols of all the surrounding civilizations around them, built up what are called asherah poles, built up altars to all these false gods, and dismissed the Levites and the Priests so they didn't have anything to do. Basically, the people forgot about who the one true God was under Hezekiah's dad.

Hezekiah comes in, though, and he brings a lot of reforms. If you read the chapters leading up to Chapter 31, you find out Hezekiah does a number of things. The first thing he does is he assembles the Priests and the Levites and he has them purify themselves. The second thing he does is then he orders them into the temple to purify the temple and to get all that garbage out of there, to get all those false gods, all those idols, all those false altars out of God's temple. Then the second thing he does after that is he has the people celebrate the Passover. The interesting thing here is they haven't celebrated the Passover in so long they forgot how to do it. So Hezekiah prays to God that he wouldn't hold it against the people because they didn't know how to celebrate the Passover. Then he re-institutes the festival and the sacrificial system, and he has all that coming down. And then, once the ministry is coming back up and going and he assigns the Priests and the Levites basically to congregations around the country, now that the ministry is going, he basically asks for the support of the people for the ministry. So he ordered the people living in Jerusalem to give a portion due to the Priests and the Levites so they could devote themselves to the law of the Lord. So he said to the people, “The ministry is going here. And now, so that ministry can continue,” Why? So they can devote themselves to the temple. You see, the Priests and the Levites had to get other jobs. They couldn't work in the temple because his dad had dismissed them. So maybe some of them were farmers. Some of them maybe were doing a skilled trade. But they had to have a source of income. There had to be some sort of funding for what was going on at the temple. So once the ministry is up and going again, Hezekiah says, “Now bring your tithes in, what God has asked you for as a response.” Because God has said, “This I give to you and now give a tenth of it back to me.” But why? So the Priests and the Levites could do the ministry. That is, so they could be leading the people in their spiritual lives. They could offer the sacrifices for the people. They could make sure the festivals were celebrated. They could make sure the Passover was done at the right time and in the right way. Basically, we're talking Old Testament church and Old Testament congregations. And so Hezekiah brings back in the ministry and says, “Now we need to support the ministry.” And the people had a heart for that ministry and so then the people generously supported that ministry.

The parallel is the same for today. God has given Gloria Dei an incredible ministry. Just take a look at what God has done in us and for us. You know, we say our purpose statement is “We're to bring Jesus Christ to people for the first time and for a lifetime.” In other words, there are those people who don't know Jesus Christ and the saving message of what He's done. So for the first time, we want to bring the gospel message, the Good News to them. But also for a lifetime. We don't want to just bring them the gospel message and then leave them be, but that's supposed to last a lifetime as we grow and mature in our faith and our commitment to God. So the first time and a lifetime.

My Friends, the ministry opportunities for us are incredible. Do you realize 50-60% of our community don't have a church home. I know you've heard me say it before, but it's phenomenal to me. 50-60% of our people living around us don't have a church home. Now that's not folks who say, “Oh, yeah, I belong to so-and-so church but haven't been there for 20 years.” I'm talking people who say, “I have no association with a church.” Now I can't look in their hearts. Maybe they have some relationship with God. I don't know. But certainly, they have no church home they can come to where they can grow in their relationship with God. No place where they can come and be fed with the Word and Sacraments. And a good portion of them have no relationship with Christ at all. So what do they have? They have a world and society out there that offers them this perverted spirituality. You've probably heard about “now America 's becoming more and more spiritual.” But what does that mean? It means it's a melting pot. It means take up your spiritual mixing bowl and add in whatever you'd like. This is the spirituality of America . So that means a little bit of Hinduism. I like that. Let's add that in. Well, you know Madonna's into Kabbalahism so let's add a little bit of Kabbalah in there. Christianity seems nice. I especially like Christmas, so let's put a little bit of that in there. We mix it all up and, wallah, that's our religion. But it leaves people empty. It's not the saving message of Jesus Christ. Scripture says there is no other name under heaven in which men can be saved. There's a world of people who are hurting and searching out there, and they don't even know what they're searching for. They need to hear the news of Jesus for the first time. We're in the middle of a mission field.

And how about for a lifetime? Can you believe the ministry God has given us? Those of you who have been here for a long time, can you believe how God has blessed this ministry and the opportunities He gives us? There are over 2,000 of us. I can't comprehend that. 2,000 of us that need to be fed by the Word of God, that need to be nourished by the Sacraments. 2,000 of us who need to grow in our faith and commitment to Jesus. And over the last couple of years, can you imagine, can you comprehend the growth of our ministry and the blessings of our ministry? You probably realize, since September, we've not had a weekend where less than 1,000 people have come to worship at Gloria Dei. 1,000 people. My first parish was in Van Horn , Iowa . They had a population of 600. That's the whole town. And 1,000 people a weekend are coming to worship God and to learn from Him. In nine months' time, we went from one educational opportunity on a weekend to three because we couldn't fit all the children into one time anymore. So we had to expand it to one on Saturday night and two on Sunday. In that same time frame, we went from three worship services on Sunday morning to five worship services a weekend, one of them being on Saturday. Can you believe what God is doing among us? The ministries, the opportunities. Our preschool, only two years old and it doubled enrollment in one year. Young lives coming and not only learning the skills of preschool but in a Christian context. You should see them on Wednesday mornings as they come in here and they sing about how Jesus loves them and how they make the cross with their hands and they say the blessing. It's not just an education, but it's a Christian education.

That's not even to talk about all the other things that are happening, the mission trips in Uganda and Honduras and New York . The list could go on and on. It's incredible to me the ministry God has laid out before us and the opportunities seem endless to me of what God is doing.

But I want to be honest with you. In a ministry that's growing as rapidly as ours, the challenges are enormous. Just to give you a peek behind the curtain. The challenges are enormous for us on staff. It's so exciting to be a part of it, but how do you keep up? How do you stay ahead just a little bit to make sure you're meeting the people's needs, you're getting people involved, they're being fed with the Word and the Sacraments. It's challenging from a leadership point of view. How do we make sure we're planning for the future? How do we make sure our congregation's ministry can continue? And now I'm going to be really honest with you. It's challenging financially. Just flat out, it is. When you bring that many new people into a ministry and, all of a sudden, the demands on the resources just increase. There's more curriculum. There are more books. There are more lights being put on, more energy being used, more things that are happening. And it's all wonderful and you're going to celebrate it, but it's still a challenge. And I'll be really honest with you, right now it's particularly challenging as we try to meet the needs of the people as we try to fund the ministry and keep the ministry going. What I'm trying to say to you is what was happening with Hezekiah is the same thing happening today. Hezekiah says, “If the ministry is to continue, if we're going to support the Priests and the Levites and the ministry of the temple, then the people must come forward and give their offerings and their gifts back to God and God will translate that into ministry. God will use that to change lives.” The same is true today. If our ministry is going to continue and if we're going to continue to grow, then it means all of God's people need to respond. We need to respond to God's Word and part of that response then is having a heart for the ministry and funding that ministry and supplying that ministry.

Folks, I've never preached like this before because I've always been so worried. I've been so worried you would misunderstand that we're just supposed to give our money to a budget. We're more mature than that, you understand me? We give as a response to what God has given to us. We give to show our trust back to God. But the reality is what we give back to God, God translates into ministry. And part of the joy God gives us in our giving is the joy of seeing His ministry flourish and the joy of seeing lives changed and people maturing in their faith.

Having a heart for the ministry means we fund and support that ministry. It's time for us to get really pragmatic, very practical. How is it we do that? What does God's Word say as far as how do we fund His ministry? How do we give back to Him so the ministry continues? I believe we go back to Hezekiah because I think he's clear and I think he gives us good direction. Because, Folks, it's time for the rubber to hit the road. It's time for us to act upon what we've learned. We know about where our hearts should be and now it's time to put it into action.

Where does it begin? It begins with a leader. That's where it begins. Take a look at what happens here. The king contributed from his own possessions. Before Hezekiah issued the decree the people should bring their offerings in to God, before he issued one word about the offerings and the tithes, the king stepped up first and he gave from his own possessions. It has to start with the leader. I'll translate for you. To me, that says it has to start with me. That's what I carry as my responsibility and privilege. You've called me here as your spiritual leader. That means giving back to God and supporting His ministry has got to start with me.

If you'll allow me for a few moments, I'm going to get a little bit vulnerable and tell you a little bit about myself and about my family and what happened in our lives as far as giving. I've shared this story before, but I believe it's worth sharing again. A few years ago, as I was preparing my messages on the same topic, I became convicted from God's Word. My conviction was, as a family, we were not giving back to God as what God would expect of me. It was not appropriate. It was not what God was asking of me. It certainly didn't demonstrate my faith and my trust and commitment in Him, so Michelle and I spent at least a couple of weeks talking about it. What are we going to do? In the end, we said our goal would be 10% of our income would go back to God. 10% is not mandated in the New Testament. But 10% is all over the Old Testament. As far as I'm concerned, if it's good enough for the Old Testament, it's good enough for me living in the New Testament. That would be a starting point. And that would be the goal we would have. And I'm going to be really honest with you, okay? We didn't either have the faith enough or it just simply didn't work out mathematically for us to jump to 10%. We just couldn't do it. And so what we did do is we decided we're going to start here and then each year we're going to add 1% and we're going to work up to our goal of 10%. And then what we said was maybe after the kids are gone, maybe after they go to college and we're empty nesters, then we can go from there. You see, we've been living in that foolishness of saying, “Well, you know, we have a young family. We have a lot of expenses, so we have to watch it.” No, you know what, that wasn't cutting it for us anymore. We were going to start at 10% and then after the kids were gone, maybe after that. And so that first year we started. Now there's a side note to this, which now I can think back as being humorous. At the time it wasn't. And that was the very same year we decided to start using Simply Giving.. In other words, you fill it out. And so I get paid on the 1 st and the 15 th . And the first thing that comes out of the checking account is the gift back to God. Well, I thought I filled it out correctly. I didn't. What I thought was the amount that was going to come out per month came out every paycheck. Yeah, the first month the checkbook didn't balance, we figured that one out. Michelle and I looked at that and our first reaction was, “Well, I just need to clean that up. I need to straighten it out and fill out the form correctly.” And then we decided to leave it, and our fallback was if we got behind or things got too tight, then I could change it. But we'd leave it. We've never looked back. I'm just being real vulnerable with you. We never looked back. God supplied all of our needs, and the blessings were incredible. And each year we keep marching forward to make our goal. I'll be honest with you, we're not there yet. In fact, I'll tell you, we've already decided what our giving is going to be for next year. Depending on whether you look net or gross, I don't really care. If you look at the net, we'll be at 9%. Gross, we're at 8%. We're in striking distance of our goal. But that's how it happened in my family. I believe it has to start with me.

I also believe it has to start with the leadership of the congregation. If you're a leader in the congregation, you need to take a look, too. And you need to ask those hard questions, and you need to do some evaluation. Are you responding back appropriately to what God has done for you? Because it begins with leadership. But then, My Friends, it goes out to everyone. Every single person in the congregation. Did you notice what happened? The king issues the decree they should bring the portion due to the priest. Okay, you could say he ordered them to do it. Well, there's been plenty of times that kings have issued orders and people have ignored them or people have found a way, a loophole, to get around it. So they gave 2% instead of 10% or they fudged the numbers here or there. But what does scripture say? As the people saw the ministry that was happening, as they were experiencing the blessings of God, what does it say? It says, “As soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously gave the first fruits of their grain, new wine, oil, honey, and all the fields produced.” Now he talked to them in Jerusalem . But yet it says here, “Then the men of the Israel of Judah who lived in the towns of Judah ,” so it's spread out from there. The order wasn't even given to them, but God's people were coming together. The ministry was happening. They saw what God was doing among them, and they also wanted to experience the joy of supporting and funding and having a heart for that ministry. But it was all of the people together.

That's what needs to happen today. Each and every one of us needs to spend some time this coming week and really pray about it and think about it and discuss it. What do you think God is calling you to do? You'll receive a mailing from me this week. You're probably expecting it. It will have a cover letter that sort of briefly talks about what we've been discussing for the last three weeks, and then there will be commitment cards in there. One of them, you'll have the opportunity next week to bring up and place on God's altar as a commitment between you and Him, that this is what you're saying you're going to offer back to God for the next year. There's even a little chart in there that says what percent am I giving now and what is God calling me to. Because that's what scripture says. We're supposed to give a portion of our income. That translates to me as a percentage of our income. Well, you need to decide what percentage works for you. What percentage do you feel God is calling you to? I told you, for my family and me, 10% was the Old Testament, good enough for them, good enough for me. That's the goal we set. Now maybe you can't do that automatically. Maybe you can't jump to 10%. Set a goal out there and then make the first move. Make the first move and start taking the actions and see if God doesn't bless you. See if God doesn't bring this joy into your life because you have a heart for the ministry He's given to us here.

Let me break it down a little bit more for you, because this is astounding to me. Back in 2005, we did a little bit of a demographic study. We ordered it out. Well, they did their magic and they came back and part of the study said this: If our congregation, on average, gave 5% of their income, we'd have a $2.5 million budget. We're operating on a $1.3. If we gave 10%, we'd have a $5 million budget. Can you imagine the ministry that could be accomplished? We'd be funding our own missionaries. We wouldn't be talking about space problems. It would be incredible, the things that could be done with the gifts God's people bring to Him. Could you imagine what could happen around here?

Let's bring it down a little bit more. This is where I'm poking and prodding and you'll have to decide if I'm pushing too hard. I told you a couple of weeks ago, 196 people, according to our records, gave nothing to the ministry of Gloria Dei. There was another 100 that gave $3.00 or less to the ministry of Gloria Dei. I did not say that to cause pain. I did not say that to inflict guilt. If conviction, that's my job. But the ultimate goal is to have you grow in your relationship with God. So consider this: If those 296 people were to give $20.00 a week for the next year, I can't take my family out for fast food for $20.00 a week, $20.00 a week, if they would do that, do you know what the impact would be? $308,000 on our budget. Can you fathom that? I can't.

I can break it down even further for you. If each and every one of us, if every person who contributed to the ministry of Gloria Dei last year were to increase just by $5.00 per week, not looking at percentage charts or anything else, just say, “Okay, for the next year, we're going to increase by $5.00,” if every single one of us did that, $311,000 more would come in for the ministry God has before us.

My Friends, the point I'm trying to make here is if you make a move, if all of us make a move, if we step out in faith, if we do that together, the impact is phenomenal. It's phenomenal. It's dramatic of what could happen among us and what could happen with our ministry. We give back to God as a response of what He's given to us. But if we give back responsibly and appropriately and if we demonstrate our trust to God, God is going to bring joy to our life and part of that joy is seeing His ministry flourish, seeing lives change, and seeing people grow in their faith. It's all about having a heart, a heart for the ministry, a heart to trust God, a heart that is full of joy.

I pray God's blessings on you in the next week, and I pray you're led and you're guided by His Holy Spirit and that next week, willingly, cheerfully, full of joy and trust, you'll put your commitments on God's altar. Amen.

Copyright 2006 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church