February Stewardship
Notes
Transcript
Luke 5:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
Circuit Series
Circuit Series
As a circuit we are not able to meet our targets in terms of income - in order to meet the expenditure it takes to supply ministers to 20 Methodist Societies.
Most of our churches are not in the suburbs. They need our support.
During February I’ve asked our preachers to look at the following themes:
📆 Week 1 (Feb 2): Love & Giving (1 Cor 13)
✨ God’s love inspires generosity
📆 Week 2 (Feb 9): Responding to God’s Call (Luke 5:1-11)
✨ Stewardship is a response to God’s call
📆 Week 3 (Feb 16): Trust & Security (Jer 17:5-10)
✨ True security is found in trusting God
📆 Week 4 (Feb 23): Forgiveness & Reconciliation (Gen 45:3-11, 15)
✨ Joseph’s generosity.
God’s Love Inspires Generosity
God’s Love Inspires Generosity
Last Sunday I reminded us that the only reason we should give - and we should give generously - is love:
3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
It is very important for us to be honest about the fact that when you give to the church you don’t actually give money to God - you dedicate it to God - but you are actually sharing it with the community.
I reminded us of the scripture from Malachi 3:10
10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.
The storehouses of the temple were used to feed the priests who worked in the temple - but also the widows and orphans and destitute.
I reminded us that we don’t give - in order to get - but we give generously and unconditionally in response to God’s love for us.
This week’s heading is:
Stewardship is a response
to God’s call
Stewardship is a response
to God’s call
You can live your Christian life on the periphery - you know - attending church. Volunteering here and there. But ultimately - we want every disciple of Jesus to live their lives in response to God’s call.
In the gospel we read for today - Simon, John and James respond to God’s call. Ultimately their response to God’s call leads to verse 11:
11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Their large act of obedience begins with a small act of obedience.
Letting Jesus preach from their boat pushed out into the water.
Jesus is teaching by the side of lake Gennesaret (another name for the sea of Galilee).
As Jesus was teaching there were such great crowds pressing around him that he climbed into a boat and taught the crowds from the boat.
The fisherman had already packed up for the day. They were busy washing their nets.
But when Jesus had finished teaching he told Simon:
4 …“Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
Simon pointed out that they had been fishing all night and caught nothing.
Their fishing technique was probably to drag their nets along the ocean floor. More effective than just dropping their nets.
Tired from being up all night.
This Rabbi has already taken some liberties sitting in the boat.
And now he is an expert on fishing?
But Simon responded:
5 Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”
“Yet if you say so…”
Is the key phrase here.
The tired fisherman knows that fish are caught at night.
He knows he has been fishing all night and caught nothing.
6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.
A small act of obedience led to a great catch of fish.
And before you think - Oh cool - if I listen to Jesus I will get rich.
Listen to the bad news (for those of us who are greedy):
11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Jesus doesn’t call us to give 10% or to small acts of obedience. Jesus calls us to give 100% - to leave everything and follow him.
To hold what we hold in an attitude of offering to God - ready at a moments notice to drop it all and follow him.
Suddenly aware that all they have comes from God the disciples follow Jesus - becoming ‘fishers of me’ rather than fishermen.
They are obedient to Jesus. Perhaps moving from a mentality of scarcity - how will we ever survive? To one of plenty - realising that God can provide if God must provide.
What does Jesus command?
What does Jesus command?
So what does obedience look like when it comes to Jesus and money?
It is quite hard to answer this question because Jesus uses money in many illustrations and parables.
Those parables aren’t as much about money as they are about generosity in forgiving sins / writing off debts.
Does Jesus say anything about tithes and things?
Well he doesn’t speak as much about it as most modern preachers do.
You won't find him laying out a specific percentage or detailed instructions on how to calculate a tithe.
Instead, Jesus focuses on something much deeper:
the heart behind giving.
And the heart’s relationship with money.
Jesus is less concerned with the amount and more concerned with the attitude.
On a couple of occasions he does speak about specific amounts - in Luke 21:1-4 -
1 He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; 2 he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.
3 He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; 4 for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”
Jesus points out that even though the rich came with buckets of money - whatever they had to give was less than what she had to give.
She gave all she had to give. They gave from their abundance.
On another occasion he berates the Pharisees and Scribes:
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.
Just to be clear - Jesus doesn’t say that they shouldn’t tithe. He critiques the fact that they are incredibly legalistic about tithing precisely without considering more important matters of the law like:
Justice and, mercy and faith.
Again - it is not about the law - but about the heart - following 1 Corinthians 13:3
3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Simply giving - achieves nothing. Giving - in love - mindful of justice, mercy and faith - in the spirit of Jesus - is the right way to steward your money.
What Jesus calls us to - is not right things - but rather - right relationships.
And especially - a right relationship with money.
This leads to a life of abundance - not wealth - but joy in holding the gifts that God has given to you - living the life that God has in store for you.
Stewardship in Obedience to Jesus
Stewardship in Obedience to Jesus
What does stewardship in obedience to Jesus look like?
If I look at the teaching of Jesus - and the practice of the earliest church - Jesus teaching and emphasis was on radical generosity.
I was always challenged by the story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus (Matthew 19:16-22) and asked what he must do to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus answer to him - sell all you have and give the money (not to the church) to the poor - then follow me.
Or there is the story of the rich fool -
16 “The land of a rich man produced abundantly.
…he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’
20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
Jesus conclusion to the story - Luke 12:21
21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
In another confusing parable he speaks of day labourers in the Kingdom of God.
Matthew 20:1-16 -
A man hires people to work in his vineyard - and he pays those whom he hired last the same as he paid those whom he hired first - because his pay was enough for them to have their daily bread.
A strange sort of generous justice.
Jesus teaches us - to value the Kingdom of God more than our own personal wealth.
He teaches us not to be fools who store up riches for themselves - but are not rich toward God.
He teaches us to act with generous justice when it comes to our money.
What should we do?
What should we do?
Simon Peter, James and John begin with a small act of obedience.
Jesus asking - can I preach from your boat?
They move to a greater act - it seems like a mad idea - cast your nets in this direction…
“Yet if you say so…”
Luke 5:5
They find they receive an abundance of fish - more than they can handle - but instead of feasting on the fish…
11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
