Prayer, bible reading, weekly worship, and
witnessing are four key components in what it means to be fully committed
followers of Jesus Christ. We have two
more key components to cover. Today, we focus on the vital component of
financial giving.
For
this, we turn our attention to a person who often goes unnoticed, who flies
under the radar, whose name no one seems to remember, and who often gets lost
in the crowd. And yet this same person is the one who Jesus lifts up in our
Gospel reading as a shining example of financial generosity.
Jesus and the disciples were people watching one day. They weren’t
sitting on a bench at a shopping mall, but they were watching the hustle and
bustle of a large crowd of people making their donations to the Temple
treasury.
There were some big time donations being made by some pretty impressive
and well known people. They were dropping in some serious coinage as a display
of their power and wealth.
These
are the names that you see in the first pages of the annual financial report
under the heading, President’s Club. It’s the annual gift that could buy a new
car. It’s such a large gift that you just might get a call and be invited to
serve on the board of directors.
As
they watch this impressive display of financial giving, Jesus points out the
obvious that it’s so easy to focus on the people who are making the big
donations. That’s the easy part. There’s a reason why most people know who you
mean when you say Donald Trump or Bill Gates. They’re rich. They have a ton of
money. And they donate more money to causes than we can ever imagine.
And I like it that Jesus doesn’t trivialize the giving of those
impressive donors. Everyone is called to offer their financial resources to be
a blessing to others. That’s something that we are all called to do.
But Jesus doesn’t want the disciples and he doesn’t want us to only
focus on the dollar amount of the financial gifts. Jesus wants us to focus on something
much more important. Jesus wants us to focus on the spirit in which we offer
our gifts.
And for this, he points out a poor nameless widow who drops in her two
coins into the Temple Treasury. Those two coins will not get her name printed
in the top donor category. She won’t even get listed under that last category
called, “Other Contributions.” She will largely go unnoticed. She will remain
nameless.
But Jesus noticed. And Jesus lifted up this poor widow as an example of
what it means to be fully committed to God. She gave her financial gift out of
her poverty and gave all that she had. Jesus wants us to see that giving is not
just about the dollar amount. It’s about the heart. It’s about the spirit in which we offer our
gifts.
We
might even say that Jesus doesn’t just notice the size of our financial gifts.
He also notices what’s in our checking and saving accounts. Jesus sees the big
picture. He can see what’s important to us. He can see where we place our
priorities.
Someone said to me one day that when you reviewed your spending over the
past several weeks, you were shocked with how much money you spend on
entertainment. It can be shocking when we do the math and think about how we
are spending our money vs. what we say is important in our lives.
Sometimes,
what we say is important doesn’t translate into our practical everyday
lives. We need to do a better job of
going from the theoretical to the practical.
Maybe you heard about the preacher who visited a farmer one day and
asked him, “Joe, If you had $200, would
you give $100 to the Lord?” And the
farmer said, “Sure, I would!”
And then the preacher asked him, “Joe,
if you had two cows, would you give one cow to the Lord?” And the farmer
said, “Well, yeah, if I had two cows, I’d
give one of the those cows to the Lord.”
And the preacher asked him, “Joe,
let me ask you one more question. What if you owned two pigs? Would you give
one of your two pigs to the Lord?”
This time the farmer got angry and said, “Now, that’s not fair for you to ask me that question preacher, because
you know that I actually own two pigs!”
Sometimes what sounds great in theory doesn’t
always translate into real life generosity.
This is why the bible talks about the principle of tithing our financial
resources. Tithing is the biblical model of giving 10% of our financial
blessings to the work of Christ and his church. Some have said that the
biblical principle of tithing acts as a great equalizer because if a poor
person puts $15 into the offering plate one Sunday morning and a very wealthy
person puts in $1,500 that same day, and both gifts represent 10% of that’s
week’s income, then their gifts are equal according to Jesus’ math. The call is
for equal sacrifice, not equal gifts.
The widow in our Gospel reading has much to teach all of us about love,
trust, and the nature of God. She didn’t have much, but she gave all she had
because she loved others beyond herself. She gave because she believed those
coins could be multiplied by God for God’s work better than by her. She knew
that God could be trusted to be faithful beyond any bank or possession.
A
friend of mine told shared his faith journey with me. Early in his marriage he would
attend church on occasion but not very often. A buddy of his invited him to
attend a spiritual weekend retreat which he did and during that retreat, he
experienced God’s love in a way that he had never before experienced. That
weekend became a major turning point in his life.
When he got home after the retreat, he told his wife all about it. He
told her about how he had experienced God’s love and grace in such a real and
powerful way and how he made a commitment to be a faithful follower of Jesus
Christ during that weekend. And so he
asked her, “How much do we give to the
church each week?” He had never asked her what they give each week.
She
told him the amount and he said, “Oh, my.
That’s nowhere near what we should be giving. We need to at least triple that
amount.”
Not only did that weekend retreat change him
inwardly, it also had a huge impact on his commitments in the key areas we have
been focusing on these past several weeks. He began praying and reading his
bible on a daily basis. He started attending worship with his wife and family
every single week. He became intentional in sharing his new found faith with
the people at work. And he began to tithe his income to the work of Christ and
the church.
If
you would do the math, even before this man’s spiritual renewal weekend, he was
giving a whole lot more money in the offering than the poor widow in our Gospel
reading. But it wasn’t until after that
spiritual weekend that he realized that his gift was so small in comparison to
her great sacrifice. He was now wanting to make up for lost time. He realized
what the poor widow already knew, that our giving is a response to God’s
gracious love in our lives.
Wes and Laura Osborn are faithful members of our church. They recently
shared what financial giving to the church means to them. Let’s watch their
video testimony.
I
invite us to turn to our commitment slip that is in your bulletin. It’s on our
topic today of financial giving and you can see the various commitments that
are listed there. I’m going to read these possible responses.
·
No,
I am not ready to commit at this time.
·
I
would like more information about the Dave Ramsey financial class that our
church will be hosting.
·
Yes,
I am ready to commit as follows:
You’ll see that it says, “General Fund”
which supports over one hundred vital ministries through our church. It then says that from this coming January 1
to December 31 of 2014, that I will give so much money every week or month or
quarter or year for an annual total amount of so many dollars.
And then at the bottom, you’ll notice an
option where you can indicate if this will represent a tithe or 10% of your
income to the work of Christ and the church. If it’s not a tithe, you can put
down whatever % of your income that represents. And finally, you also have the
option of checking the last line that says that in the years ahead with God’s
help, I will step up toward tithing. This might mean that instead of giving 2%
of your income to Christ and the church, that you set a goal to give a higher
percentage the following year until you reach the biblical principle of
tithing.
I think the last paragraph is very
important with this Sunday’s commitment on financial giving. It says that
giving will be the greatest joy in my life. If I miss a week, I will give twice
as much the next week to keep my commitment. I will move closer to tithing,
giving 10% of my income each year. I will make my contribution to Christ and
the church the top priority in my personal budget.
As you complete your commitment slip, remember
to complete both sides of the slip. You’ll need to tear off where you see the
dotted line. Keep the left side of the slip and we are invited to place the
rights side of the slip in one of the covenant baskets nearest you. There are
baskets down front here and there are baskets up in the balcony.
I
want you to know that we will give these commitments utmost care. We’ll have
somebody who is very trustworthy collect these just so that we can be aware of
the commitments that are being made today.
I think we’re ready. May God bless you
during this sacred time of commitment.
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