We Have Work To Do

Withhold Nothing

Our lives, the Christian life that is, falls into a sort of a pattern. It’s a pattern that different people start at different places and different times. It’s a pattern that sometimes we move forward through and sometimes we take steps backward.

The most natural starting point for this pattern is those parts of our lives where we are confronted by our own sinfulness and our own brokenness. Sometimes we come face to face with ourselves and in a moment of honesty we recognize how far we are from what God tells us we should be. Sometimes we are confronted by a friend or a family member or a mentor who forces their way through our self-justification and we recognize that we are fallen sinners. Sometimes the consequences of our actions or our words come home to roost and we recognize that we need something to change, something to be fixed.

This leads us into the second part of this pattern, where the Holy Spirit works in our lives and leads us to the foot of the cross. We meet Jesus, whether it’s in His Word or through the words of another believer, and He tells us that He will take all of our sins, all of our brokenness on Himself. He tells us that there is nothing more to deal with between us and God. He tells us that we are forgiven. He tells us that He has made the way for us to join Him in eternal paradise.

And the third part of this pattern is how we respond. Brothers and sisters you are forgiven, you are redeemed, and there is nothing you have to do to earn that incredible gift. We’re called to respond though. We are called to respond by presenting ourselves as living sacrifices. What that means is that we don’t withhold anything from the mission God has put in front of us, making disciples of ourselves and the people around us. Presenting ourselves as living sacrifices mean that we conform every part of our lives, as much as we can, to what God has called us to be. And we don’t do this for God, He doesn’t need anything from us, we do it for ourselves, because He has promised that living sacrificially is for our benefit.

Giving Financially

One of the parts of our lives that we tend to hold back from being part of our living sacrifice is our money. You might not know this, but the biblical precedent for giving financially, the biblical benchmark is 10% of our income. But for most of us, the idea of giving 10% off the top to the church is ridiculous. You might be sitting there thinking “that seems kinda greedy” or “the church isn’t about money.” And you’re right, the church isn’t about money - we don’t give in a sacrificial way to pay the church’s bills or so that the church’s accounts look good. We give in a sacrificial way because it is how God has called us to live, we give in a sacrificial way because it is one way that we live in a sacrificial way and glorify God. You’re right in thinking that 10% is a lot, but I genuinely believe that we are better off as individuals when we give in that kind of sacrificial way.

I don’t know how many of you I’ve shared this story with, but I still remember the first sermon I ever gave on giving. I was preaching at a fieldwork congregation I had been assigned to near St. Louis, MO while I was still a student and I want to read you just part of that message.

My hobbies take some commitment and sacrifice. I spend ten dollars a month for the TV package to watch some of the sports follow, I spent another twenty dollars this season to make sure I could get Nashville Predators games. I have a $600 dollar Xbox One X sitting under my TV and I subscribe to Xbox Live - another sixty dollars a year. Some of you are doing this math in your head right now, I did it in advance, that means I spend a total of nearly $800 dollars per calendar year for entertainment. As I wrote this sermon, my W-2 was sitting right next to me. I spent over eleven percent of my annual income on entertainment! I spent more on entertainment than I did tithing. Isn’t that sad?! I wasted, yeah, I’ll admit that, I wasted eleven percent of my income on video games and watching sports. What does this communicate about my priorities?

What about you? What do you waste your money on? The average cable bill in this area is $100 a month and the average cost of internet is nearly $50 dollars a month. That right there is $1800 dollars a year. According to MarketWatch the average American spends $2,913 a year on entertainment and nearly as much on eating out. That’s a total of between eight and nine thousand dollars a year - wasted on entertainment. The average American only makes $32,000 a year. That means, my goodness, the average American wastes around a quarter of their income on entertainment! According to those same sources, less than 10% of Americans give 10% or more of their income to church or charity. As a culture, as individuals in this room, we have decided that entertainment is more important to us - at least twice as important to us - than supporting the mission of the church and her social work. That should make you feel ashamed, that makes me feel ashamed for when I don’t prioritize supporting the church and embarrassed about my culture that does the same! If our money is any reflection of our priorities, then our priorities are in the wrong place. The priority isn’t on Jesus, isn’t on the proclamation of the Gospel, isn’t on the church and the fellowship of believers.

It simply isn’t enough to say Christ is our priority while not acting on it at all with our resources.

Living sacrificially includes our finances, as uncomfortable as it is for me to preach about it and for you to sit there and think about it. Presenting ourselves as living sacrifices mean that we conform every part of our lives, as much as we can, to what God has called us to be including where we spend our money and how we prioritize our finances.

Giving Service

Living sacrificially is a holistic call on our lives though, it’s not just about where we spend our money. It’s also about taking the time to act as the hands and feet of Christ. It is about sacrificing our time and our talents for the sake of the mission.

It’s about sacrificing our comfort to have a conversation about God with our friends or family who don’t know Him.

It’s about sacrificing how we want to live to serve as an example to the people around us of how God has called us to live.

It’s about sacrificing our time to serve as an organizer for the church community, to serve as an usher, to serve as part of the group that makes worship happen on Sunday mornings.

It’s about sacrificing our complacency to push ourselves as disciples, by hosting a Bible Study at our homes or offering to lead one.

It’s about conforming every part of our lives to the will of God, to the mission of the Gospel, to the image of Jesus.

Giving Commitment

Is this faith that we share something we should compartmentalize and set aside 6 days a week?

Does the sacrifice of Jesus mean so little to us that we would put the bare minimum into following Him and being His disciples?

We are saved! We are redeemed! We are forgiven! The God of all creation came to earth to suffer and die for us! And when we ask how He wants us to respond, He gave us a mission! He has called us to offer our everything as living sacrifices to Him. This is a good way to live! This is the best way to live! We give our Sunday mornings, we give time to a small group, we give time to this community, we set time aside to retreat together because it is our joy to do so! These are our responses to the Gospel! To live sacrificially with finances, service, and engagement!

A few weeks ago I announced to you all a call to serve as a pastor near Nashville, TN and I will be honest with you all, there were a lot of things that made it a tempting decision. But the Holy Spirit didn’t leave me, didn’t leave us at peace with that. The words that resonated with us through that process, the words that led us to decline that call and remain here, these are the same words I leave with you this morning.

We have work to do here! Amen.