Stewardship is an Act of Worship

November 23, 2003, 8:00, 9:30, 11:00 AM

Rev. Ronald Burcham

Typed from audio transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Christian writer, Andrew Murray, wrote this: "What a wonderful religion Christianity is. It takes money, the very embodiment of power in the world with its self interest, its covetedness, and its pride, and it changes money into an instrument for God's service and glory." Doesn't that really wrap up what we've been talking about for the past two weeks? That God takes this earthly wealth He has already given us, He takes this thing called money, money with all of its temptations-even scripture says that money can be the root of all kinds of evil, not that money itself is evil but it can lead to all kinds of evil things, covetedness, self interest, selfishness, all those things can be surrounded about it and isn't money really the embodiment of power in our society-and yet God takes this thing called money, and He turns the whole thing around and He ends up using it as an instrument for His service and also to bring glory to His name.

For the last couple of weeks, we've been learning all kinds of things about what God has to say about our finances. He gave us the five principles for our finances demonstrating that God is concerned about all of our wealth, not just part of it. He told us last week that when we make our offering back to God, it's an opportunity to acknowledge Him as priority one, an opportunity to show that we trust Him above all else, and that when we make that offering, we give back a proportionate response, a generous response, one in which we can say that we truly honor God with our gift and bring praise and glory to Him.

Well, that all comes down to this morning. This morning, after the members of Gloria Dei have wrestled each week maybe a little bit, wrestled with what your commitment will be for the next year, prayed to God, read His Word, and now we're about ready to celebrate, to celebrate and to have joy as we make that commitment to God with only one question remaining. What is giving really all about? What is really happening when we collect the offerings or when we give our gift to God?

Well, the first and foremost thing that God tells us is that financial giving is an act of worship. You may want to follow along on the outline that was provided for you. There are some scripture lessons I'm going to refer to. Financial giving is an act of worship. Now maybe that doesn't sound quite right to you because I think there are several misconceptions that go on about when we collect our offering or when we give back to God. First of all, let's start with what happens here in the context of our worship service. Is there a misconception of what happens during the offering time? Is it viewed kind of like an intermission, a little bit of an interlude? I mean, after all, you've had to listen to me for what, 18, 20, 25 minutes sometimes. It's time to kick back and relax. It's a little bit of a break, right? Time to get a stretch. Maybe it's time to visit the restroom, grab a drink of water, freshen up your coffee, read the Weekly Word. We have everything besides popcorn, right? It's a little bit of intermission in the service. Is that really all it's about, though? Do we really need an intermission? Isn't there something deeper that's going on? There's another misconception about when we give back to God, and that misconception is we're just giving to one of many charities that are out there. The church does good things. There are several social programs they have going that I agree with and I want to support that, and so it's a charity like any other charity and I just make my gift to them and, after all, at the end of the year, when it's time to fill out my taxes, I get a little bit of a break on it. So it's just a charitable deduction. It's just a charity that you give to because you believe in it. But is that all that giving is? In other words, if the offering we bring to God in every worship service is nothing more than an intermission or an opportunity to collect our gift to a charity, then why do we have it in the worship service? We could do it some other time. We could handle the whole thing by mail, or maybe we could do it before the service or after the service. Why do we do it in the middle of the service? We do it in the middle of the service or in the context of a worship service because giving is much more. It's much more than just a break in the service. It's much more than just giving to a charity. No. Giving is our act of worship. It's our act of worship. It's our chance to give back to God. It's a time for us to celebrate. It's time for us to be excited that God has now given us an opportunity to respond back to Him.

The gospel lesson for today, did you notice what was happening with Zacchaeus? Now maybe you're like me, and you have that silly little children's song in your head, "Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he." If you didn't have it before, you have it in your head now, don't you? You can blame me about that. Anyway, it's the story of Zacchaeus. We all know the story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is the chief tax collector. Translation: He's the chief crook, because that's what tax collectors did. They stole money from the people. He climbs a tree. Jesus sees him and says, "I'm going to have dinner at your house tonight." Something happens to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus has a realization that he is the center but more than that, God comes to him and God convinces him that He loves him. And Jesus convinces him that he is forgiven, that he is a son of Abraham, he is a part of the covenant people. What happens to Zacchaeus? He responds in worship to God, and he worships God with his earthly wealth. He says, "Half of what I have, I'm giving it away. If I cheated anybody, four times the amount I'm going to give back to someone." He was touched by Jesus' love and compassion, that Jesus, the Son of God, would eat supper with him, that he realized God still loved him." That welled up a response in him. He said, "I have to respond back."

That's what happens for us. Take a look at 2 Corinthians 5. This is what God does for us. "That God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them and He has committed to us the message of reconciliation." God has made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. It doesn't take much to convince us that we are sinful people. We may not want to admit it to anybody else, but certainly our conscience alone will tell us that just the very mention of the word sin or fault or doing something wrong will remind us of the words we spoke this past week we wished we hadn't, will remind us of some of the deeds we've done that we can't take back. It doesn't take much to convince us of our sinfulness. It doesn't take much to convince us that we're dealing with the consequences of living in a sinful world, a fallen world, and we have to deal with that. But in this passage, what God says to us is not only does He take care of all our earthly needs, not only does He give us the ability to work and to make a living, not only does He give us the clothes and the food and the cars and the homes, but God is not going to be satisfied with taking care of just this life, God is going to take care of eternity. So God takes our sins and doesn't count them against us. In fact, God says that He took your sins and my sins and He placed them on the sinless Son of God. What God tells us is that, as Jesus was nailed to the cross falsely and as He hung there in agony, as He cried out to His Father, the Father turned a deaf ear to Him and He allowed Him to die so that you and I wouldn't have to, so that you and I could have a guilt-free conscience after we hear the words of forgiveness, so that you and I can spend an eternity with God, that you and I, just like Zacchaeus, are a part of God's family.

And then God gives us an opportunity to respond to that. First of all, how do we respond to news like that? When you really understand it, when you really come to grips of all that God has given to you and all the grace that He showered upon you, when you really experienced God's love, it just wells up in you that you want to respond in some way. God gives us many ways in which we can respond, but right now we're talking about how we can respond with some of the earthly wealth that He's given to us, that He gives us the opportunity, He gives us the ability to offer some of that back to Him for the work in His kingdom. It is worship in every sense of the word. Take a look at Deuteronomy. It says, "No man should appear before the Lord empty handed." When we come to worship, we don't appear empty handed. We give something back to God. Or the Psalm has captured it, "Ascribe to the Lord glory to His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness. Tremble before Him all the earth." It's part of worship. When we come together to worship our God, our response, our ability to take part in that worship, is to offer back some of the gifts. Think about it. Up until this moment, God has been coming to us. He's been coming to us through His word. He came to us with the assurance of forgiveness. He comes to us through the delivered message, and then the offering comes, our opportunity to respond back to God. It's not an intermission. It's an opportunity. It's an opportunity to say God is priority one, an opportunity to say I trust in God above everything else, an opportunity to say I've been touched by God's love and I have to respond in some way. I have to give back even if it's insufficient, inadequate, I give back to God. Financial giving is an act of worship.

The second thing that financial giving is, God gets real practical about it. He says, "Financial giving accomplishes ministry." The gifts He gathers in from His people He transforms and He changes them into instruments for ministry. It was so in the Old Testament, the early church, and it's so for us here at Gloria Dei. Take a look at the Old Testament. You may remember that the Levites were set aside to be the priests of God so that means they didn't have a parcel of land, they didn't have flocks, they didn't have herds, they didn't till up the soil, they dedicated their lives to the temple and to serving God's people. God says this: "At the end of every three years, bring all your tithes for that year's produce and store it in your towns so that the Levites, who have no allotment or inheritance of their own, and the aliens, the fatherless, and the widows who live in your towns, may come and eat and be satisfied so that the Lord your God may bless you and all the work of your hands." God takes the offerings from all of Israel, and He brings them together and He translates them into ministry. He takes care of the tribe of Levi who don't make a living other than serving God. He takes care of the fatherless and the widows and the poor and the alien. God takes those offerings, and He uses them for instruments of His ministry.

So also in the New Testament. We've been reading a lot from Paul's letter to the church at Corinth. He keeps talking about this offering that he's gathering. What is that all about? Well, take a look at 1 Corinthians. "Now about the collection for God's people," that's how he prefaces this, "Now do what I told the Galatian churches to do." What offering for God's people? Take a look at Acts 24, "After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings." Jerusalem had undergone two dramatic events. One was the persecutions of all those who followed Christ. They were persecuted to the point where they had to flee Jerusalem. The second thing was there was a famine in the land just about that time, so they didn't have any crops and probably their flocks and their herds were suffering as well. So people in and around Jerusalem were suffering, so Paul gathers up all the churches that he has ministered to, the Macedonian churches, the Church of Galatia, the Church at Corinth, and he gathers up from them their offerings to God, their act of worship and then he transforms that right into ministry, ministry that happens among the people so they would have something to eat, so they would have something to share, He promotes His kingdom, He makes His kingdom grow by taking our offerings and translating them into ministry. The same is true right here in Urbandale, Iowa, at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. God takes our offerings, your offerings, my offerings, and He translates them into ministry. That's not why we give it. We give it in response to God. We give it as an act of worship, but God takes those gifts, He takes those offerings and they're translated into ministry in what I would consider dramatic and amazing ways.

For instance, in my notes here, I have that we had 41 baptisms this year. Let's make it 42, shall we? 42 times through the water and through the Word that God came and implanted faith in the infant or secured faith in the adult. 42 times that God claimed a person to be His own, to be His son or daughter, or how about the fact that at this very moment there are somewhere around 240 children learning from God's Word, being brought up in the righteousness of God right now. Or, on a Wednesday night, 250 kids at Faith Alive learning the practical aspects of what God's Word has to say for them. The 30 40 teenagers that gather every Sunday and every Wednesday to be equipped as they go back out into their high schools and all the questions and all the pressures that are there, to be equipped with their faith, with the Word of God and the fellowship of believers. Ministry is happening among us in dramatic and amazing ways. How about the adults that care for one another? Offered a hand of concern, bringing meals to people's homes, the ChristCare groups that gather around God's Word, the ladies' circles that gather around that Word and minister to each other, the various other small groups that are happening in our congregation. What about all the ministry opportunities that expand even beyond our walls, the ministry to our community, the ministry to our nation, and even across the seas?

This past week, the junior high kids made 70 blankets on Wednesday night. 70 brand new blankets. DeAnn McCue, our Director of Children's Ministry, said to me that when she delivered them on Thursday the Assistant Director cried. She said we never get new blankets. They're always old blankets, well worn she added with holes in them. But now the homeless youth could have a new blanket. In fact, one of the kids was there and he picked out one for himself. God takes our offerings and they're transformed into ministry and lives are changed. Ministry that happens three times a Sunday. Do you realize that on any given Sunday somewhere between 750 and 850 people gather in this sanctuary to hear God's Word, to be fed from His sacraments, that last Sunday alone we were only 4 shy of 900 people in this sanctuary? If you had to park last week, you know what I'm talking about. God blessed us with that many people. Is it the numbers that are so awe inspiring? No, it's what they represent. Nearly 900 people coming to be fed from God's Word and from His sacrament. God is taking our offerings, and He is making them into instruments for His ministry so that lives are changed so that people for the first time can hear about Jesus Christ and maybe the first time in a long time they can hear about God's love. That's what God does in this amazing act of worship is we come to Him with our gifts. Through our financial giving, God accomplishes ministry.

And then finally financial giving produces joy for the giver. It produces joy in our hearts as we give back to God. So it was in the Old Testament. So it was in the New Testament church, and so it is to be for us today. In the Old Testament church, when they came together to bring their offerings, we read about it in our Old Testament lesson this morning. It says that when you bring all your offerings together, what does God want you to do? He says I want you to throw a celebration. Have a party, He says. Read about it in Deuteronomy. "There in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your family shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you've put your hand to because the Lord your God has blessed you." They were to come together to have a feast to celebrate all that God has done, to celebrate their act of worship as they gave back to God a tenth of all that God had given to them. The New Testament church is even more dramatic than that. St. Paul, in his collections for the saints of Jerusalem, the Macedonian churches, they really understood. Read with me again 2 Corinthians, "Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity, for I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in the service to the saints." I picture St. Paul talking to the Macedonian churches saying, "Listen, you guys are in pretty hard shape right now already. You don't need to give to this. There are other churches that are doing well. We'll gather from them." And the Macedonians understood. They understood what the offering was about. They understood this was their opportunity to give back to God. They understood this was their way of saying God was Number 1, that this was an act of worship, that there was sheer joy in doing that; so they urgently pleaded with us that they could take part in it. They wouldn't let St. Paul or any of the rest of them take the joy away from them, take the opportunity away from them. The Macedonian churches got it. They understood what offerings were all about. It is sheer joy when we give back to God in recognition for all that He's given to us.

It is to be sheer joy this morning and in every worship service when the offerings are gathered. In fact, God says to us don't give to God if you're giving it out of compulsion, if you're giving it reluctantly, if you feel like it's something you have to do, don't do it. God says but out of sheer joy, out of response to His love in your lives so that when the time of offering comes, it truly is an act of worship. As your opportunity to respond back to God wells up inside of your heart in a godly pride almost saying that I'm going to honor God with my earthly wealth, I'm going to watch Him take that and translate it into ministry and lives changed, it is to be sheer joy when we give back to God.

In fact, this morning, we have a special opportunity to make our joy even more complete. This past week, the members of Gloria Dei have maybe wrestled a little bit with God, struggled with how they were going to make a proportionate, generous gift to God to honor Him. And now you've come here this morning with your pledge cards in hand and you're going to place those on God's altar, a commitment between you and God, that this is how you believe you can bring honor to Him and watch ministry happen. So let's celebrate that fact. In fact, let's celebrate it right now. Would you please stand up, look in your worship folder, there's a medley of praise there, I want you to sing out with all gusto like you've never sang before praises to God as you then come forward and you lay those commitment cards on the altar. Go ahead, stand up, I'm serious. Stand up and let's sing our praises to God.

Copyright 2003 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church