9/22/2019 Giving Your Treasures Back to God

Are scripture reading today is Matthew chapter 6 verses 1 through 6. And I say this every once in awhile, like all scripture is great and God breathed because when I come up and say man, this is great. I feel like I'm technically saying some isn't great and that's not the case at all. All scriptures green god with men every once while we have little snippers, are there something that resonates and when I when I read this this morning, I think about the hundreds of years and Sunday School classes in this country and not in this country or sermons that have been done on this this 66 verses and a game gives me goosebumps. So this is really good. Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do you will have no reward from your father in Heaven. So when you give to the needy Do not announce it with trumpets as Hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others. Truly. I tell you they ever received their reward in full when you give to the needy do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that you're giving may be in secret then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you and when you pray do not be like the Hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others truly. I tell you they have received their reward in full, but when you pray go into your room close the door and pray to your father who is unseen then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you the word of God for the people of God.

Thank you, sir.

I come over from Aetna directly to here. And sometimes actually happened this morning.

How do I make sure this goes to backpack Ministry? Maybe help me out? I give it to you.

Is there another option? Is someone on the counting committee? I'm not going to ask the woman that worships here.

Put envelope in the back back on it and do that. Okay, I can do that. This isn't my money somebody literally I was walking out ahead and Cesaro. Hey, this goes to backpack Ministry. My general rule in Ministry is I don't touch money. Like I just don't I don't even like the fact that somebody had to be ten bucks, right? So

This isn't mine. But I'm going to make sure it goes where I need it to go, right? Okay, do you see my relationship with money? You think there's anything in this sermon that might also be about how our relationship with money ought to work. I didn't plan this out. This is a holy spirit clearly doing this but but our relationship with money is kind of like that like we get things and then we're responsible for them. It called stewards right? We're stewards of the money is not necessarily ours, but we're responsible for it. Do any of you serve on boards on any company boards on a school boards under you and I both serve on Eastern Wesley Foundation. If you're on a fire department board or whatever kind of bored you are on it's not yours, but you're responsible for it. Okay, and the same is true when we look at money. I was told to things very early in Ministry. A church. I was serving was having financial trouble. And I express this to a colleague in the colleague said the first thing you need to know about Ministry is people. Don't tithe the tip. If everybody ties we wouldn't have a problem we have in abundance, but everybody tips. And some of them don't do that that was last part of it. There's a certain amount of of Truth in that when we talked about giving people want to know. Is there a magic number right? Do we give host net or gross? How do we give when we give to our retirement plan? Do we include that giving in are earning? What do we do what we're really doing in that point in time as we're splitting hairs. Cuz we kind that we have to be intentional about it. But we're also called to do it. We're called to give and it's it's over money. Yes of our time. Yes and of our energy or our resources. There are points in our lives where the amount of those things that we can give changes. In our younger years we might be able to give very little on the money. And more on the time or more on the energy in our older years where we may have health issues. Maybe we don't have the energy but we have more of the money or we have more of the time and even in and amongst all of these things. There's another level And that level is what we want to give to. See it in the church. Just specifically in the church. There are things that people will and won't give money to Sometimes it's there's some people that just want to give to building to structure. There's other people that would never desire to give the building or structure but want to give to programming or other Ministry. There's other people that would never give to to program in the ministry, but would love to give the mission and Outreach, right? So like we have this desire in our heart this thing that connects with us like that children's hospital or that ESPN Gameday something that clicks and we're just like, okay we do this. And at the heart of it that can be good. But it can also be a way that we seek to also control. That which we give and how it's utilized the scripture this morning. So that's right. It's extremely powerful and Rich.

First off. I want to point out.

The scripture says do not be righteous. So others know that you are righteous. I call it being righteous for righteousness sake. The idea that we can appear righteous for the benefit of ourselves. It's part of that struggle. We have that very. Earthly struggle that we had with our own intentions. I had a professor in seminary. He was Episcopalian. He was serving his first Parish in this gentleman called him every week to complain about something in the church. And you just belittle them? And you just belittled in and finally this green behind the ears Episcopal priest decided to look at the given numbers. And he was always told this gentleman was a really really large Giver. And you looked at the numbers and he got mad one day on the phone with this congregant and he just said without even thinking about it. You can take your $400 a year and go to hell. You should have said it. Immediately knew we shouldn't have said it. He called his Bishop smartmove. He called his bishop and he said this is what I said in the bishop laughed. The bishop laughed uncontrollably. He said well, maybe you shouldn't have said it, but maybe it needed to be said

You know, sometimes the way people give can also be for show. What they get back is also honor and respect. I was invited to open the US House of Representatives with a prayer a few years ago. And it every representative gets one person that they can recommend during their time there and shimkus recommended me and so I went there and then there's all this kind of conversation beforehand. You got to provide the prayer like 2 weeks out so they can read it and then you get to go like behind the scenes were even C-SPAN doesn't get ago and like it's really cool and all these people were very very nice to me and I was like, oh yes Reverend here you go. All of course you can go back there. Oh, yeah, you can do that and they were paying me a lot of honor and respect. And I had no idea why. I'm a young guy from the middle of central, Illinois and I have a congregation a 70 on Sunday morning. And and here I am being shown all this honor and respect and there was something about it that felt really good. It feels good to be honored and shown respect but there's also a trap there. But if that in which we want to feel is the reward then what are we giving it to get that reward and scripture here tells us that that other people viewing you is righteous is your reward if what you see to be is seen as righteous. I don't know about y'all, but that hurts for me.

When people find out in the pasture oftentimes like oh, well, we're really sorry that so-and-so said this or that so-and-so I didn't mean to use that language around the I didn't know.

There's something to be said about why we do what we do. And there's also something to be said about how we do what we do.

the other part of the scripture

Is it weird to give money back to God? specifically in this case to the needy

Do not announce it with trumpets

to be honored by others instead Give in secret

first I want to highlight. Did you give money to God to give treasure to God is a decision that has to be made. We have to make that decision. and then follow through like it's something we have to consciously think about Weather we make this choice in our life or not. And last week we talked about how we couldn't serve money and God but but this week we're going to talk about how the way we give money can serve God.

Each and every one of us in this room has something that drives us. something that makes us tick ears There's over. Brooklyn hundred reasons why we're here in this place. For me, it's it's partially in my life experience that one of my buddies was peeking in a downstairs basement church window on a bunch of ladies that work Wilton and he fell through that window and onto the table and you know, what they did they gave him a sucker. They give him snacks. They told me to come back again. Church is a pretty friendly fly case.

So for some of us, it's our youth ministry or how we encounter God when we were younger. Brothers of us it's is even for me how the church cared for my family as my dad was dying. And what that look like and how they reached out to my mom when she was a widow like those things have impacted what drives mean? So it shouldn't surprise any of you that every year I purchased a ornament from hospice in honor of my dad to put on the tree.

16 years later, that's a lot of ornaments.

But it says something about about my relationship and understanding with what drives mean and we all have something that drives us.

But what drives us together? Is to be a family of faith that decides to do ministry together.

you know when we give of ourselves part of that giving that decision that we make The actual giving of it is a choice. We choose to give. we choose what to give to and we choose how to give What we're saying in Dubai doing those things part of what we're saying is we relinquish control. Part of what we could be saying is that we relinquish control. Part of that push back in the beginning of our treasure is the desire to control it, right? It is easier to control how Ministry is done and it's not just lady folks. Its clergy too early in Ministry. I had to make the decision that I wasn't going to give to the church by purchasing things that I wanted to purchase for the youth group or for the worship space or whatever else cuz that's not giving either that's controlling. And I had to decide not to be that controlling person. And that's scary. Giving up control is scary. But it's also holy. It's holy because the Holy Spirit Works in and through that giving to something better that we couldn't ever envisioned. One of the outcomes of me not being able to do that or decided not to do that means that I have to share why things are important to me that are important to me and that's good for everyone to have an opportunity to discuss.

With a lot of greenery here. I don't even want to ask but I'm going to is the greenery and anyone's memory. Is it in honor or memory of anyone? Thank God. Okay good. I serve the church where I move something and then the next week they were like did you check and I was like now just a plant but like in that church every plant had like a thing on the back like in honor of this person in honor of that person, right and so would then it eventually became not even about the plan. It was like great Aunt Betty was really right there. And if you move her to the vestibule you might as well kick her out of the church. You get the idea? Until there's sometimes things that connect with money when we give our Treasures back to God that is difficult for us to name, but it's very very relevant for us that we feel okay. So our decision to give back to God is an actual decision and it's a choice, but we're not called to Doom and Gloom about the choice member those things that I asked you about earlier kind of what those things that drive and motivate you are some of them might be programming some of them might be missional getting some of it might be trustees or or physical plant off work, right? Like part of what we ought to do is own it. On those things that excite us. Cuz there's power in that giving there's power and understanding that some things are important to you that you want to share with others. There's also power in giving so that no one else like

knows that you give

but we're all called to give right. So how does the left hand not know what the right hand is doing?

It's the heart. That we give with. It's the heart that we give with. Do we give in such a way that freeze it that lets her hand off of it so that God can use it.

Or do we cling to it? And almost desire to go and send it up the tube at the bank and around and down and all the way into the Vault so we can still clean do it to control where it goes.

giving is about returning to God, which was God's in the first place. It's about having an opportunity to be a steward. To give to where God excites you to give right? I get this. I got this newsletter every quarter. It says Robbie Dillingham. It's from the camp that I used to work at as a high school and college kid. And sometimes, I'll usually when I open it up and it's always like something that I'm kind of excited to give to you.

But there's something that's wholly in that too. I understand that but what we're talking about here isn't just the church. We're not just talking about what Neoga Grace United Methodist Church is budget looks like or what giving looks like but the fact that no matter where you give that you're called to give because it's not about you. It's about God and it's not just about the amount but it said it's part of our faith Journey.

We're called to be a family a body of Christ together.

and that means we're called to give back to God from our heart next week's sermon is entitled. Don't worry about a thing. So if you're a big reggae fan to be a good week to to come for that I got to find some music for that band. Are you guys ready for some reggae? I probably should have asked a week beforehand will. It'll be the end after service is over. We will find something when we Travis think he's okay.

But it's about how this this discussion about money shouldn't just cause us to Bubble Up and worry. It should give us some Joy. Because it reminds us that God is taking care of us and that we are Co participants in this holy Act of faithful living. butter spray

almighty God

You've called us.

to live live lives of righteousness

but not for the purpose of being seen as righteous.

You've called us to give to the needy.

but not to be seen giving to the needy

you have called us to a life of Prayer.

But not for the purpose.

of being seen by others in prayer

guide us

as we seek to Faithfully live out that call.

Not so others see us as righteous.

or other CS to give Or others to see us pray.

But because we want our heart.

the line up with your heart

to bring about the kingdom of God.

for all the world

Amen