Sermon Tone Analysis

I want to thank everyone for throwing us the housewarming party yesterday.

It was so thoughtful and you guys are so very generous.

Your presence alone would have been enough, but we appreciate so much the gifts that you all gave us.

We loved having you guys in our home and I hope you know that our home is you’re home and that you’re always welcome.

Yesterday was the kind of warm, sunny day that reminds you that summer’s coming.

We’re taking the summer off from Acts and we’ll be going through this series on what it means to Be The Church.

If you remember last summer’s All Hands On Deck, this summer’s theme is Be The Church.

The first topic we’ll cover is the topic of giving, which means, yes, we’ll be talking about tithing and church budgets.

Now, some of you are ready to get up and walk out right now.

Some of you can handle me preaching on just about any topic, but when the preacher starts talking about money, well then we know he’s just corrupt and everyone else there is too, because, you know, they’re just looking to line their pockets.

Well, that’s really not the case, I promise you.

We don’t make commission on tithes.

Our pay doesn’t go up just because tithing goes up.

The fact of the matter is that when we preachers preach on giving, no one is satisfied.

There are some who’ll say, “He didn’t preach hard enough on giving”.

Others will say “he stepped on our toes too much.”

So why am I preaching on giving?

Why four Sundays on giving and stewardship?

That’s a fair question.

There are four reasons up on the screens.

Why giving?

And why now?

Why do I bring it up now?

We all have (some) money

God’s word has something to say about our money

It’s my job to teach you that and help you apply it

And we are in a position where we need faithful giving

I came across this quote from Chuck Swindoll about the Bible and money.

“Jesus talked about money.

One-sixth of the Gospels, and one-third of the parables address the subject of stewardship.

Jesus was no fund-raiser.

He dealt with money matters, though, because money matters.

It’s a surprise to many people, Christians included, that the Bible has so much to say about this subject.”

[Swindoll, p231]

So, are you ready?

Here we go.

We’re not going to talk about money until the end, okay?

First some foundation.

We can’t answer the question “what should I give and why” until we’ve answered two other questions: 1) Who is God?

And 2) who are we?

#1: Who is God?

God is Creator

The Bible tells us very clearly that God is Creator.

It is in fact the very first thing you learn about God when you open the pages of Scripture.

It is the first thing children are taught in Sunday School.

God is Creator.

Genesis 1:1, the very first page of the Bible, the very first line of the Bible, says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Midway through the canon of Scripture we read in Psalm 33:8-9, “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!

For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”

In the NT we read this in the prologue to John’s gospel.

John 1:1-2, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.”

At the end of the NT, in the book of Revelation, the Holy Spirit pulls back the curtain of heaven and reveals the worship of the triune God.

What are they singing about?

What is the subject of their worship?

It is God as Creator.

We read:

The Bible teaches us not only that God is Creator.

It teaches also the scope of His creation: all that is that we can see or touch, He made it.

It teaches us the purpose of His creation: it exists to bear witness to His glory and power.

And the Bible teaches us the mode of creation: it was by His word alone.

Creation ex nihilo - creation of something out of pure nothingness.

We serve and worship a God who speaks, and His word creates the reality it speaks of.

He says, “Let there be light.”

And light simply begins to exist.

I can announce my intention to build a wall to close off the bonus room in our house and make it a bedroom.

But my announcing my intention to build a wall does not itself create the wall.

No, I actually have to get to work building it, or pay someone else to do it for me.

God announces His intention to create, He declares His desire to create, and that declaration alone, that announcement alone, creates the reality it speaks about.

“Let there be light”, God merely says.

And the result follows immediately: “and there was light.”

God is Creator and Sustainer.

Do you acknowledge Him as Sustainer?

God is Sustainer

God is also Sustainer.

God does not merely create and then leave us to ourselves, as those who are deists would say.

Deists say, “Oh, yeah, God created everything but then just completely turned His back on it and has left it alone ever since.”

The Bible says otherwise.

God creates and God sustains, meaning He preserves creation, He upholds creation, He maintains it.

Physicists tell us that conditions in this world are tailor made to support life.

The tiniest of deviations in terms of temperature and distance from the moon and the sun would create catastrophic conditions on earth and it would be uninhabitable.

In Job 34:14-15 we read: “If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.”

God creates this universe by His word and He also sustains this universe by His word.

In Heb 1:3 we read:

God is Creator of this universe and He is also its Sustainer.

And therefore, God is Owner.

God is Owner

God is Creator.

God is Sustainer.

And God is therefore Owner.

The Bible teaches this too just as clearly as it teaches us that God is Creator and Sustainer.

In Psalm 24:1-2, we read: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.”

In Psalm 50:10-12, we read: “For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.

“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.”

This makes sense, right?

After all, there are two ways you can becoming the owner of something.

One way is to buy it, and it’s yours.

The other is to make it, and it becomes yours.

If I make something, and maintain it, it’s mine.