We are Generous.FMC sermon

Intro and scripture

We are FMC. Intro....this was originally planned to be our stewardship series that would culminate in a stewardship Sunday as we made commitments to where we were going in the next year. Given the year we have had, we thought it would be prudent to shift stewardship to the new year and properly cast the vision once some of the change and up and down settle a little. Today is still a stewardship day in many ways…Town Hall and discussion of where we are headed.

We are multigenerational, multiethnic, missional, committed to holiness of heart and life, better together, and we are sacrificially generous.

Malachi 3:6–12 NIV

“I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

Pray.

College, Breakaway ministries. There was this incredible mission. And I am a new Christian, keep that in mind....We were helping with project to build orphanages for special needs kids in a country where special need kids were being abandoned or worse. Moving. I wanted to give. So a smart thing to do would be to work some extra shifts at the restaurant. Set some money aside, etc. Instead I decided, I just got this deposit of money from something called a student loan. And I gave a few hundred bucks from that. Yes, I know, stupid. I gave money that was not mine and I gave money that I would pay interest on for a decade. Brilliant. I wish I could say that was the worst part.

Background for Malachi

100 years after babylonian exile. been in Jerusalem for a while. they returned with this great hope that the messiah was coming. But the new generation would be just as corrupt as previous generations leading to injustice and poverty

the exile fundamentally did not change anything.

6 dispute: God would make a statement and then the israelites would dispute this claim against God. In the first three God exposes their corruption and then in the final three God confronts their corruption.

“I still love you” 1:2....how have you shown us your love?

You despise me and defile my temple....how have we done this? (improper worship from lay and priests)

You have turned against me and your wives....how? (marriage and taking on pagan worship)

you have neglected us! Where is the God of justice? God: I will send my messenger to wipe this out.

God tells them to turn back to him...they stopped offering a tithe....Israelites: how?

It is pointless to serve you.... he gives a short story of remnant of faithfulness

The main point:

“the exile fundamentally did not change anything.”

Question to ask ourselves out of Malachi:

“Has the coming of Christ fundamentally changed something in us?”

Today, for our final week of this series we focus on this 5th dispute.

I will not make this an allegory for us, but want to see what we can learn from this story from Israel and see how it might help us consider our own generosity.

“You are robbing me”

This is a hard statement from God.

The dispute here is first specifically, “you have turned away from me.” and the Israelites question....oh, how have we turned away from you?

The underlying accusation here (and in the book) is that there is scarcity, poverty, injustice in the land…this is your doing, God.

So God confronts them by showing that they have stopped bringing the full tithe and offerings into the Temple. There is scarcity, not because God did not provide, but because the people have turned to an attitude of scarcity.

Scarcity is an attitude that says God is not trustworthy

Jesus says listen, look at the birds of the air and the way they do not worry or the flowers of the field do not labor.... but seek first the kingdom and these things will be given to you.

Scripture is a narrative of God’s abundant generosity and the people’s stubborn attitude of scarcity.

Story of scarcity between Luke and Rylie

Have you ever been in a season where everything seems to go wrong? For us it was when Luke was about a year and a half, almost two, and Lauren was 9 months pregnant with Rylie. It had been a particularly hard stretch with Luke since his diagnosis with Type 1 Diabetes a year before. The weekend after due date, stomach bug goes through our house, makes us all sick, eventually puts lauren in labor, our medical equipment for Luke fails. Like just completely breaks as we are trying to leave and go to the hospital. Things worked out and Rylie arrived in full health but there were some moments in there where we felt anger that everything was going the worst. I remember praying with my accountability guys one morning. Literally praying that God would answer this prayer and protect my family, and as we are praying lauren calls me with bad news. I was so frustrated with God.

My friend called me after....John Wayne stop looking at the bad and do an assesment of what you know and what is good.

Shipwreck Inventory

Scarcity is an attitude that says God is not trustworthy

We can sit here and talk about loss. We can count all of the retirements, the pastoral transitions, the lost friends and members, the decline in membership..... SCARCITY or we can see it another way.

Ok, but this is about tithing....

Oh so when we do not tithe, we are robbing God? That seems a little heavy handed....

2. When we do not do our part we rob God from what he wants to do through us.

Notice something here. God is not going hungry. This is not a literal robbing of God but a statement pointing to what they are taking from what God wants to do in the world:

Malachi 3:9–10 NIV

You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

See God is not concerned that we all did not prop him up with welfare checks…he is pointing to the fact that when his people live lives of scarcity, then the land misses out on God’s provision, but if they will live generous lives then all of the land will experience his blessings.

This is not prosperity:

the blessings are not material blessings, or individual provision. I am not offering a money back guarantee that God is going to get you that new car or vacation home, or that husband or wife youre looking for if you just tithe to the church.

No, he says the land will be full. The crops will be full. The world will know God is with them. This is about accomplishing God’s mission here and building the kingdom.

In our context: in some ways if we are under the guise of scarcity then we too will miss out on what God wants us to do in Conroe and the greater area. For justice, for love, for poverty.

Tithe:

Let’s say a word about the tithe. This is where I am at. We need not make the tithe what it was never intended to be.

The tithe in the law of the OT was about teaching God’s people a practice that pointed to an intended heart attitude.

Trusting God and his abundance

first fruits

witness to the world

Jesus mentions the tithe, but he does something interesting. He raises the bar as he usually does:

Matthew 23:23–24 NIV

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

In another words, the tithe is a good thing....but it was always about justice, mercy, faithfulness.

I am much more concerned with getting you close to Jesus, have you following him. Generosity comes from there because he is the epitome of generosity and sacrifice.

Now, I also believe the tithe is a good practice.

1. Because it teaches generosity and trains my family to be trustworthy of God.

2. It is our part of participating in what God wants to do.

Why give to the church?

Some of us are extremely generous in so many ways. Some of us give a huge proportion of our income in all different places. That is great, I want to celebrate your generosity.

But I want to just say a word about church, membership, and covenant.

For those of us that are members of FMC (and those of us that have been attending for 17 years but have not joined officially, we need to talk)… you have become covenant members together. We profess that we will support FMC with our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. The church is to be an outpost of the kingdom, this place of mission.

This is why we have talked about multisite, multigenerational, method, mission, and commitment....and where all of that is leading.

It takes all of us to get there together. Family discussion

Stats:

Methodist give less than 2% of their income total to the church

FMC saw significant loses in families leaving after the vote

More importantly, FMC saw a drop in giving as I know we all wanted to see how this all worked out.

Instead of doing a stewardship campaign and working on estimated giving for next year, we knew we needed to focus right now on the road in front of us.

I want to challenge us today:

If you are not giving to the church, let’s start somewhere. Let’s do an inventory on starbucks during the week, or golf, or streaming TV subscriptions and let’s start somewhere.

If you are giving what you can, can you start proportional giving. Prayerfully coming up with a plan about first fruits and make a commitment to God and to your church?

If you are further in this, can you grow that?

In the last couple of weeks I have been so grateful to see an outpouring of support. Some have given over and beyond what they pledged or have ever given because they know of the challenges. Volunteers helping to staff the receptionist position, volunteers investing their own time, skills, and money to turn around our prayer garden, countless texts, emails, visits offering service. I got one email that said “John Wayne, here is my skill set, my gifts, and how I can help…let me know where you need me.”

Today will be about financial support of the church, but it is about so much more than that as well. Truth is individual in the room....God does not need what you have to survive and likely FMC will survive without it.....but we are not setting our goals on surviving. We want to live sacrficially because when we are available God will bring justice, peace, love into the world.