GLORY TO GOD ALONE
Rev. Thomas B. Cundiff
October 20, 2013
“For from Him and
through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever.
Amen. Romans 11: 36
Psalm 126
A Harvest of Joy
When the Lord restored the
fortunes of Zion
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
‘The Lord has done great things for them.’
The Lord has done great things for us,
and we rejoiced.
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
‘The Lord has done great things for them.’
The Lord has done great things for us,
and we rejoiced.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.
May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.
Ephesians 5: 18b-20
…….be
filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to
God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Romans
16: 25-27
Now to God who is able to strengthen
you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the
revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings
is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God,
to bring about the obedience of faith— to the
only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever!
Amen.
I.
There are pastors who say they don’t like to preach
“Stewardship” sermons. I have always
felt such avoidance of this topic of stewardship is paramount to avoiding the
gospel. The gospels speak clearly and often about our
returning to God from the abundance of blessings, including life itself, entrusted
our care.
As we celebrate all in life that belongs to
God we gather to worship in giving glory to God for everything (and I mean
EVERYTHING) God has entrusted our use and our care:
SOLI DEO GLORIA! GLORY, ALONE, TO GOD!
Our scriptural grounding for this stewardship
season in the church comes from Ephesians 5 verses 18b-20:
…….be filled with the
Spirit, as
you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and
making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at
all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Give thanks for everything in the name of
Jesus Christ our Lord. We do this each
week in gathering together for worship in this sacred place to sing to God:
“Praise God for whom all blessings flow
Praise God all creatures here below;
Praise God above ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!”
(#592 Hymnal)
Or as another hymn we often sing says:
“We
give thee but Thine own,
What - e’re the gift may be;
All that we have is Thine alone,
A trust O Lord, from Thee”
(#428 Hymnal)
In giving glory to God for blessings
received, I will be preaching these next few weeks on what God has entrusted
our care and what we return to God with our tithes and offerings. Today I will be focusing on the traditional
categories the church has used for years in thinking about stewardship….
First, our returning to God a portion of the “time”
God has given us,
Second, our use of “talents” from God
given skills and talents, and
Third, our use of “money”, in returning
to God a portion of what has enriched us financially.
Lastly, what do we return to God from what God has
placed in our hearts? The “heart-felt
passion” we have for Christ’s Church!
So in getting started:
II. Stewardship of Time
Stewardship
of time. Tick-tock,
tick-tock! One precious gift God
gives all of us in equal proportion from the time we are born until we
die: TIME.
An interesting comments I hear concerning
time: “I just don’t have enough
time!” or “I can’t find time to do one more thing!” or “I’m too busy!” And I hear this often in this church: “I’m too old!” In all honesty, do we ever lack in having
enough time for the things we truly love or impassioned to be doing?
Stewardship
of time. Each of us has to make decisions each and
every day as to how we are going to invest or spend or prioritize
the use of our God-given time. We all
take time for sleep. We take time for
meals in bringing nourishment to our bodies.
We value time spent with family and friends. We also enjoy time in drinking that favorite
cup of coffee or reading that favorite paper or book. There is time spent with a host of
activities, whether at work or at play, that is “discretionary” – things we
choose to do or want to do as opposed to time spent in things we feel obligated
to be doing.
An
example and not to embarrass anybody, we have two individuals who come down to
this church almost every week to do some cleaning. This is not a glamorous job. These two individuals put in countless hours
in keeping this building looking good. Not speaking for these two individuals, but I
wonder to what extent ANYBODY feels obligated to come to this church to do all
the many things all of you do to serve their Lord? I know this is discretionary time. These two individuals could probably find
other things to be doing in different places.
But they are here. They are
stewards of the time God has given them returning a portion of this time to the
church!
I could give a dozen examples of those of you
who do the same…..who come to this church to do things behind the scenes as
stewards of time. I am guessing, if they
didn’t truly love this church, they wouldn’t be here!
Stewardship
of time. One of the most valuable gifts we can return
to God is the seventh day, the time we invest with God and worship. In fact it doesn’t cost a cent to clear our
schedules to take time for worship in giving “Glory to God” for blessings
received.
Seriously, one of my greatest fears for you
and this church in this time of transition:
All the leaders of this church who will be spending countless hours in
helping this church through the transition in searching for a new pastor, will
need your support simply by being here for worship. There will be lots of different things to do
with our various ministry teams, but nothing can move forward without a total
commitment to be together once a week as a church family….in worship….in giving
Glory to God for this church and all the blessings we have received through
this church.
From Psalm
95
“2 Let us come into
God’s presence with thanksgiving; let us make a
joyful noise to God with songs of praise! 3 For the LORD is a great God,
and a great King above all gods…..6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! 7 For God is our God, and we
are the people of God’s pasture, and
the sheep of God’s hand.”
Stewardship
of Talents. Closely related to the time we offer God are
the talents we use as an investment in helping the church. The two volunteers who help clean, the
members of ministry teams making phone calls to secure guest preachers; the session in holding special meetings; deacons making extra calls – I give thanks to
God knowing that so many of you are using your talents in making sure this
transition is as smooth as possible. And
for those of you who feel you can not longer do anything? Just picking up a phone to call someone to
say they have been missed in worship – what a wonderful gift!
Have you heard me refer to a “Talent
Bank”? Warren Avenue Presbyterian
Church has its own talent “Talent Bank” and all of you have already made
deposits!
Literally, if God has given each of us
talents to deposit in our personal “talent bank” account for future use, what
portion of these talents do we use in support of the church?
We often think in terms of giving tithes and
offerings when it comes to money. What
about the tithes and offerings we offer God with the use of time and talents?
Some illustrations on what you can do in
using some of your talents:
n
If you have a passion and
some talent to share in helping this church make plans for the future, consider
joining one of the church Ministry Teams.
n
If you have a talent in working with children,
you can find a few hours to help with the nursery or church school.
n
If your talent is in working
with finance, you can join with others in helping out on the church Management Team
n
If your talent is fixing and
repairing things, I am sure Charles and the Facilities Team could use some
help.
n
If you like gardening or
doing outside work, we have plenty of outside work that needs to be done around
the church.
n
If your talent is office
work, there is plenty you can be doing to help out Melissa around the church
office. We also have a team that meets once a week just
put out the newsletter.
n
If you have any passion for
worship we can always use your “talents” as ushers and greeters and worship
leaders.
n
If you like being together
in fellowship, we can always use help with coffee hour hosts and church meals.
n
If you like calling your
friends and writing notes, consider becoming a deacon? If your talent is “TALKING ON THE PHONE” – I
can get you a copy of the church directory!
J
I honestly
believe there is something any and all of you can be doing in sharing a portion
of the time and talents God has given you!
IV.
Stewardship of Financial
Resources—Money
Stewardship
of Money: I don’t feel the need to spend a lot of time
preaching on this subject. This is the
day we pass out pledge cards. Only one
thing needs to be said. We can tithe our
time and talents for use of the church.
We can be perfect in worship attendance!
We love this church and what this
church does in the community. This
fact: Our mere presence and work and
love for the church doesn’t, by themselves, pay the bills.
We are adults. You know what this church means to you. The two main questions I ask you to consider
in making your pledge to support the church in 2014:
(1) Will you
continue to give as generously as you have in the past?
(2) Will you
consider doing more?
It is pretty much known by most of our
members that we have a small endowment fund that helps to support the operating
budget of the church. These investments
are also used to help out with emergency expenses.
A significant part of our operating budget
comes from these investments. It is also
important for you to know that at the current rate we are using these
investments – they cannot/will not last forever! Simply, we are spending more from these funds
than they are growing. The best way to
slow the trend of being dependent on these investment funds is for each of us
to do what we can to sustain or increase what you give. In fact, if you can, we really need to see
“increases” in pledges to cover the losses in pledges that occur naturally.
I know that money is tight. I know that a large number of you are on
fixed incomes. I also pretty much know
that all of us can do more!
Which leads to my final point:
V. Stewardship of our Passions
We love
this church. I will always love this
church even though I am not longer going to be your pastor. This final point: Are we going to give to God from the bank of
resources in helping this church move forward in serving Christ? Does what we give in the form of time and
talents and money match with the “passion” and the “love” we have for this
church and for each other?
I often
say from this pulpit that stewardship is placing our gifts next to those things
we truly value. It is that time of year
to ask: Do I value what God has (and is)
giving me through this church? What can
I do in response to what God has given me?
The church
needs your time and talents. The church
needs your financial support. We give
glory to God for all the blessings received and used to further God’s Kingdom
on this earth and through the work of Christ’s church.
May God continue to bless us in the important
work we have been called to be doing in remembering these words from
Romans:
“For from God and
through God and to God are all things.
To God be the glory forever.
Amen. Romans 11: 36
No comments:
Post a Comment