It's All About Worship

Anglican Church of Noos 1 Chronicles 29:1-20 and 1 Timothy 6:6-19 The Generous Life - It’s All About Worship Rev’d Lynda Johnso I hope you know that I love worship And weekly worship with God’s people is a highlight of my week. I love worshipping with my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I hope you do too And I love passages in the Bible that describe what’s happening when worshippers worship! And the passage we read from 1 Chronicles today does exactly that God is the one who calls us into worship, into relationship with him, and into mission with him. This is why church exists. We come together to worship God, to give him his worth; and this refreshes us, to go out and show Him to others What an inspiring time of worship this 1 Chronicles reading describes. The back story to this is that David wanted to build God a temple, a house, but God said no, that he would build David a house, not a physical house, but a dynasty, and that the building of the temple that David wanted to build for God would be for Solomon, David’s son, to accomplish. And that’s where this part of the narrative picks up. David had the vision; David had the plan; Solomon brought it to fruition, and David saw it all come together. What an incredible blessing for him. What a moment that must have been And as the leader of the people, did you notice what he did with that opportunity He led by example He called everyone together He shared with them the vision, and the size of the task they had before them. It was a huge task … their vision was a massive one He pointed out that it was serious business, because they were setting themselves not a physical goal, but a spiritual goal. This was for God. It wasn’t a secular task. And because of that, David himself didn’t just promise some of the royal coffers, he donated from his personal possessions as well. And he was’t vague about it … he publicly stated the amount. He led by example. And then he asked the people to join him in the giving. The end of v.5 says “Now, who among you is willing to consecrate yourself to the Lord today? And the community leaders gave willingly. [vv.6-8] They responded with gold, silver and precious stones, and the collective amount was told. Now we don’t use talents and darics, that all seems a bit odd to us ” ? . . . . . . . . . a n . Page 1 of 6 But the equivalent of what they gave was about 190 tons of gold, about 375 tons of silver, about 675 tons of bronze and 3750 tons of iron. Incredible generosity from the leaders of the people, who were motivated because of what they saw their leader giving And then what happened? Did you notice it There was joy everywhere. People were generous, and they were joyful about it The whole thing was totally inspirational. David was inspired. The leaders were inspired and the people were inspired. Everybody saw what their king had given, they saw what their leaders had given, and they were overjoyed And then …. David worships publicly. Through prayer and praise he acknowledges God’s blessing. And his prayer is a beautiful expression of the true place of earthly belongings. God is the one who is generous, not us. God’s generosity inspires the people’s generosity, from the king, all the way down Have another listen to David’s prayer… vv.10-14 'David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying “Praise be to you Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendou for everything in heaven and earth is yours Yours Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all Wealth and honour come from you; you are the ruler of all things In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. Isn’t that an incredible prayer, and incredible worship?David rejoiced at the response of his people and showed great spiritual leadership He praised God as Lord of everything; he recognised that we are insigni cant in comparison; and in the next verses he prayed that the hearts of the people would stay loyal; and he nished off praying for Solomon, the next leader, his son, to wholeheartedly follow the Lord David’s prayer shows where his heart truly is. Despite all his achievements, he was deeply humble. He wanted to give all the glory to God, and for none to come to him. It’s so clear that David placed no trust in his material possessions, but he certainly placed all his trust in God, his Lord This passage is such a challenge to the materialistic culture we live in, isn't it It’s so easy to adopt the values of the world around us. r ” fi . . . ? fi , . . . . . . ? . . . . . Page 2 of 6 We are constantly surrounded by consumerism, marketing, materialism, and by the subtle and not so subtle encouragement to get more and more because it’s what will make you satis ed and happy. A little while ago I got this in the mail…. “No one deserves it more than you! “Dear Valued Customer Treat yourself! …… “No one deserves it more than you! Doesn’t that validate what we all hear just about every day and what we’re tempted to actually believe. YOU DESERVE IT! YOU DESERVE IT! That teaches people to have the attitude that cares little for others - that my life and my life alone is all I need to think about, or care about, and to hell with everybody else basically As Christians, though, is that the attitude we are to have? What is it that Paul writes to Timothy ‘godliness with contentment is great gain.’ If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. And he charges those who have those things to ‘do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.’ And we do that so that we don’t fall into the trap that money sets for us - Paul says that the desire to be rich plunges people into ruin and destruction. And he writes that well known phrase - ‘For the love of money is the root of all evil. What ties this passage from 1 Timothy to 1 Chronicles? God does it all It’s God’s generosity that needs to be acknowledged. Paul says to Timothy that it is God who provides everything Why should we be generous? Because God is generous God calls all of us to be humble and generous with the gifts He lends us. Don’t hold onto things tightly As Christians we are called to give ourselves totally to God, and this includes everything. Our money, possessions, time, energy and gifts We can intellectually say all this, as a belief of the mind. But how do we translate that down to the heart? Because it’s only when something is in the heart, that it truly affects our behaviour It’s almost like money is a barometer isn’t it? It shows what, or who, we really trust in. It shows what’s truly important to us fi . . . . ” ” ’ . ” . . . . Page 3 of 6 So how can we get what we know in our head, to come down into our heart, and impact our behaviour, like it did for David and the Israelites Well I believe we need to sit honestly before God, as individuals, as couples, as families, with the Bible open, and be in honest prayer And we need to challenge ourselves. Not defend ourselves before God or others, but to truly be open, honest and genuinely seek new things under God Every year Chris and I sit down as a couple and rethink our giving. And we ask ourselves - have we had an ok year? If the answer is yes … then we thank God for that, and ask him to help us have the faith to increase our giving. In our 35 years of marriage, we have not missed that conversation. In fact, we love having that conversation every year, because it gives us joy to know that if we can increase our giving, we will. And we want to I want to share with you today what Chris and I do as stewards of what God has given us When we married we were both practicing the discipline of tithing our income. We were both full time income earners before we married, and we independently practiced the discipline of tithing. And by that I mean a 10% tithe on our gross income. So at least that was a starting point for us. But we challenged ourselves for that to only be a starting point. We believed that the grace of the gospel takes us into deeper things. So if we were able …. that is, if we’d had a good year when things had gone along ok, then we would increase our percentage. Some years we couldn’t increase, but most years we could. At the moment we are committed to giving 22% of our gross income each year. And we split that up so that 60% of that goes to our local church, and 40% goes to wider mission, to agencies and organisations which we believe do great Gospel work. This year that translates into our mission giving being $10,600, and our giving to church is $15,900. I share that with you, because it’s part of our worship commitment, and Chris and I are your leaders. And you need to know that we are committed to God and his church, and we are committed to you. We are committed to this place going forward as a Gospel church. We are here as part of the team. It’s what it means to belong to a family, and it’s what it means to be a worshipper of a great God I believe that here at the Anglican Church of Noosa we’ve got a great team of people with commitment and vision that sets our course well. We’ve got great ministries that bring the gospel to bear on our own lives and on those around us. We've got youth and children’s ministries that need to grow and be resourced. We need to grow and develop in our evangelism and reaching the community, because there’s a world out there that doesn’t know Jesus, and we need to help them hear about him. Ministry needs to be resourced. And the resourcing comes from us collectively. . ? . . . . Page 4 of 6 Yes we pay salaries, and electricity, water, gas, we pay insurances and maintenance, we contribute to the work of the wider Anglican church, and we also give to Mission and the spread of the gospel across the world And there’s more that needs to be done. This region is growing, and we’re staring down a future to plan for. In the next few months we’re going to be employing a new minister, and we’re also going to be envisioning the next steps in our church life And what a great future we’ve got ahead of us God’s care and generosity is there all the time. Through good, through bad, God is constant and faithful. Surely we can be the same Please read The Generous Life brochure. Can I ask you to please have a look at the chart insert, and have a practical look and check at what your giving currently is. Can I say very clearly, that it’s got nothing to do with any particular amount of money, but it’s got a lot to do with proportion. Because proportion tells you how much you value something. And that’s why knowing what we worship and why and how is so important. Our giving is all about worship The simple questions to ask yourselves as you have this family discussion are … Is it possible for our giving to increase so that this work can go forward Is it possible that God will honour our decision and help us to be faithful The third week in our series will be Commitment Sunday - next week - June 20. I don’t know if you’ve ever done anything like this before, but we invite you to bring your form with you that day, and as an act of worship, commit your offering to God. Giving is a spiritual act, and needs to be done as an act of worship. That is why giving is central to our worship service. Because it’s part of our attitude of honour to God So on Commitment Sunday, we’ll be giving you an opportunity during the service time, to place your commitment in a bowl [anonymous if you wish], and we will pray for them all, that God would use those commitments to bring great blessing to the givers, and to His church We want to thank you so much for your generosity in the past. This church is a generous church. Our Council is grateful for those who give willingly and consistently through the years. If you currently give open cash in the plate we encourage you to move to the envelope system so you can monitor your consistency in giving, and if you currently use envelopes could you please consider moving to direct debit, because that is incredibly helpful for regular cash ow in our budgeting. And it’s helpful for you to know, that whether you’re here or not, you are still able to be part of the regular mission and work of your church. Direct Debit is a very practical way of being faithful. . fl . . ? ? . . . . . Page 5 of 6 For our treasurer to see the giving coming in regularly, gives him con dence in paying the bills, and it means that our cash ow doesn’t have to be stretched unnecessarily. Your giving contributes to these very practical matters for the Wardens, treasurer and parish council I invite you to come on the journey, join with others, grow God’s kingdom, grow your faith, and pray with King David … “Yours Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours Test our heart Lord, and take us forward for the sake of the gospel of Jesus we pray. Amen . fi . . . fl Page 6 of 6