Stepping Up in Stewardship

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1 George A. Mason Spring Stewardship Emphasis Wilshire Baptist Church 30 April 2017 Dallas, Texas Stepping Up in Stewardship Proverbs 3:9-10; 11:24-26, 28; Matthew 6:19-21, 24 I had a visit this week from an athletic-department development officer from my alma mater, the University of Miami. Louise was just getting started in this work, and she did a nice job in her time with me. I was on her radar because of my regular giving, not because of the amounts given. I let her know that giving to Wilshire was my priority, but I have a policy of giving something to all the institutions that have shaped my life. At that point, she showed me a record of my giving history. She asked me if I was willing to make a pledge to continue giving, whether I would be willing to increase my giving level somewhat, and whether I would be willing to do it before the end of May. Yes, yes and yes. Before she left, she asked my advice about asking people to give, since it s certainly a part of the work I do. You may not know this, but I worked for a year in alumni relations at Miami doing the same job. Here s the biggest takeaway I left her with, which comes mainly from my experience with you: People want to give and are grateful to be asked. We all know intuitively because this is how we re made and how God has set up the world that when we give, we are in a deep current of reciprocity that flows in and through all things. Always ask people to give, I told her, because it s good for the cause they give to, and it s good for them to give. Lucky for you, I m taking my own advice today. I m asking you to give. I m calling on you to give generously and immediately for the sake of God s work in the world the best cause possible, for the sake of the church you love that is doing God s work in the world; for the best means possible; and for the sake of God s work in you the best benefit possible. We ve had a lot on our plate as a church for a while, so I apologize for not asking you more often or lately in my preaching. But now is the time to pass the plate and fill it up with our generous gifts.

2 The world is waiting. I know that this sounds grandiose. It may seem abstract. If I had video screens in the sanctuary (don t worry), I could show you picture after picture of a suffering world waiting to know the love and consolation of God through the witness of a generous church. I could show you the faces of starving children and bloody images of wartorn places. We are virtually immune to these things now because we see them every day. Emotional appeals like these work now and then, but they don t bring systemic change in the world or in you. The more important thing to remember is that every time you give, you are simultaneously making an offering of yourself to God and the world. You are joining Christ in bringing rescue, healing and salvation to those who desperately need it. It s easy to lose the connection between our giving and God s saving work in the world. If I could magically transport you to Macedonia this morning and you could see the work being done by our missionaries there with refugees from the Middle East and North Africa, you would have a hard time keeping your wallets in your pocket. If I could take you the city of Aleppo in Syria if there s enough there to still call it a city and show you the work of the Preemptive Love Coalition with Christians and Muslims who have lost everything but their souls you would want to give right now. If I could have taken you to the Studio Movie Grill yesterday, where Kim and I saw a powerful and painful film, 8 Days, about the human trafficking and sexual exploitation of young girls that happens all over the globe and in our very own city of Dallas, you would have said, How much do we need, and where do I give? But here s the thing: That s exactly what happens when you give here, whether you are seeing the world s pain in person or not. We ve done the vetting for you to make sure your gifts get to places where God is changing our city, our state and the world. You may think that when you give to the church, you are giving to the church. And you are, but you are also giving through the church. If it all stops here, we aren t doing our job together of repairing the world, as our Jewish friends like to put it. 2

3 A good portion of what you give does stay close to home to feed the life of our community of faith. That includes all the staff, from pastors to custodians. It matters deeply to their families that you give. It also includes our residency program, which is changing the face of church leadership across the country from right here on Abrams Road. It includes shaping the lives of children and youth in the ways of God that will stay with them forever as they walk in the way of Christ. It includes blessing your hearts and breaking your hearts just enough about the state of the world, Sunday by Sunday, to never let us live in a church bubble of privilege. I don t know about you, but this church s work has shaped my life and my family s life in ways I can never repay. There s an African proverb called Ubuntu that says, I am because we are and because we are, you are. Can any of you who have been here for a while say what you would be without this church? Is this not worthy of your financial giving? Do you want this church to flourish or to flounder? Much of the outcome depends upon your commitment to it and through it. Consider what this church would be if every person s giving were just like yours. If that s a good thing because you are already exceedingly generous, thank you. Keep leading and experiencing the blessing of God. A generous person will be enriched, the proverb says. In every way. But for the rest of us who know we have room to grow in our giving, I am challenging you today to draw upon your deepest desire to honor God with your giving. Let s all step up in stewardship, beginning right now. Let s use the month of May as a launching pad for our future together. It s time for takeoff. First, step up by starting up. If you re not giving anything right now, take a step up by starting up. You can t cross the finish line if you don t first cross the starting line. No guilt here, just encouragement. I know, and in your heart you know, how this works: once you start, you won t stop. Make a new habit this month. Maybe set up an automatic bank withdrawal so that you are committed, whatever the amount. Some of you have wanted to be tithers for a long time, but you haven t gotten there yet. You know the biblical benchmark for giving is 10 3

4 percent of your gross income. If you are at 2 percent now, can you move up to 5 percent in May as an act of faith in God s promises to you? If you really want to prove God s faithfulness, why not try the tithe in May and see what happens? Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. That last part about vats bursting with wine even goes for Baptists, don t you know?! Some of you are giving regularly, and yet you are behind your intentions. Maybe you had unexpected expenses, or you simply stopped paying attention. Maybe you ve been uncertain about the church because of our challenges the last year or so. But now it s time to renew our commitment to move forward. I urge you to step up by catching up. Take the May challenge and catch up this month. On the other hand, some of you are downright excited about the future of this church now. We have removed all ifs and buts from the vocabulary of love around here. Love is love is love is love. But love is more than words; it s deeds, too. And giving is indeed a deed. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote that there is no more liberating, no more exhilarating experience than to determine one s position, state it bravely and then act boldly. Giving generously to back up your bravely stated position is acting boldly. But acting boldly by giving generously may give you more heart, more courage to be brave. Jesus doesn t say that where your heart is, there will your treasure be also. That s what we say. Jesus says that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So, then, step up by starting up, catching up or here s the last thing for some of you doubling up. Give twice your monthly gift this month. Or more. Some of you can do that, even if you don t have the income you used to. Some of you have done a great job of laying up treasure for yourself on earth, where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves break into your 401k fund and steal. I m in that category, too. I ve had good financial advisors through the years who have taught me to prepare for 4

5 retirement down the road. I believe in that and also want you to prepare well. But the older I get and the farther down that road I get, the more I look at all that and start worrying about whether it will be enough. But listen to that word I just used worry. The more I focus on my savings, the less inclined I am to give, because I worry about having enough. We make savings plans and spending plans, but why do we never seem to make giving plans? Here s my question to myself and maybe to you: why would any of us live the first two-thirds of our lives giving generously and learning to trust the Lord with our giving, and then suddenly shift to a posture of worrying and withholding? Should we not trust God with our accumulated wealth as much as with our steady income? We were talking about this in deacons meeting the other night. Our chair, Charles Yarbrough, was telling about a time when as a young married couple, he and Judy had decided on an amount that they would give to a capital campaign. They had filled out a pledge card and brought it to church that morning. Then they made the mistake of sitting through a Sunday school lesson on trusting the Lord by giving more than you think you can. They found each other afterward and agreed to put God to the test. It changed them for good and for good. They ve never looked back. I sat there listening to this story, and it convicted me. It goes both ways: you sometimes preach to me. I had dutifully planned to double my monthly giving in May. But then I decided maybe we could give half again of our annual tithe this year. Treat this year s giving to the budget like a capital campaign. I went home and told Kim, fearing what she might say. She reminded me that we have recently come into some inheritance money and that this is a time if there were ever a time for us to do something bigger for the church. Then she asked me this: How is half our tithe a double? So there you go. Marriage. We are going to give a double tithe this year and trust the Lord for the future. I don t know what you should do. I suspect it s more than you think you can. But how will you know unless you take a step up in your stewardship and see? 5

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