Doing God's work?
You may have heard that some of the financial institutions who took government bailout money dished out 30 billion dollars in bonuses last year-- up 60 percent from the year before.
Now I'm not an economist and I'm not against people making a good living. But something about that doesn't sound quite right. What's even more amazing is Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, said his work overseeing these bonuses is all a part of-- and I'm quoting here-- "doing God's work." I'm not making this up.
Now I'm not judging Goldman Sachs or its CEO, but I am interested in doing God's work. And I'm guessing that since you're here this morning, you do too. And you know it takes money to do God's work. And dollar for dollar, I'm betting churches like this do more of God's work than Wall Street firms.
This church doesn't need your money, but the mission of this church needs your money.
Here's the good news. This church doesn't need your money. There's nobody in leadership here who's doing it for the money. And for the most part, they could make more money spending the same time doing something else.
But the mission of this church, that mission needs your money. If it weren't for the financial gifts from a handful of people who sacrificed in the past, we wouldn't be sitting here today. They did it for you, people who for the most part that they didn't know at the time, but believed existed and needed this unique church for this community. Turns out that they were right.
Had they not given, God only knows were some of us would be this morning. Who knows where our children would be this morning? How many lives would be unchanged?
You may not have thought about this, but this church receives no outside financial support. No denomination or religious body sends us money, and there are no government bailouts. This church is financed entirely by people who believe in our mission and ministry.
And if the mission ceases to exist, the church no longer has a reason to exist. That mission needs your money. And the people who have yet to encounter the radical love of God, they need your money.
No money = no mission.
We can talk about the precious gift of God this faith community is and we can become excited about the future. But we'd be naive, if not disingenuous if we didn't say: No money = no mission.
There's another layer as well. The Bible actually says that they way in which we handle our money is a window to our spiritual life. God asks us to use our finances not only to accomplish the mission, but to increase our faith. The Bible says that where your treasure is, there your faith will be also. Your heart location is determined by your cash location.
No financial generosity = no spiritual growth.
If we're interested in spiritual growth, we'd have to admit: No financial generosity = no spiritual growth. What does the Bible have to say about the connection between our financial generosity and our spiritual growth? Follow this biblical overview.
1 Corinthians 4:12 tells us that the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power. Peterson paraphrases in The Message this way. "God's way is not a matter of mere talk: it's an empowered life."
The problem with too many churches is that I see too much talk, and too few empowered lives. Do we really need more religious chatter? The important thing is not always being able to explain every detail of God's power. It's being able to access and benefit from the power and provide opportunities for others to encounter it.
Jesus said to his critics as recorded in Matthew 22:29 by saying, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God." Paul says in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes."
Sometimes we focus on the ashamed part, and overlook the power part. The gospel is power. And God's kingdom is power, not talk. Most of our needs and the needs of others could be met if we were living an empowered life. Or more to the point, if we were living a God-powered life. This is exactly what God promised us.
God gives us a spirit of power, of love, and of self discipline.
Paul even warns Timothy about hose who want to engage in, "...myths and endless genealogies (religious chatter). These promote controversies rather than God's work-- which is by faith." See 1 Timothy 1:4. Instead, Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7, "God gives us a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline." The key to experiencing the power, which meets our need and carries out the mission, is understanding the difference between God's job and our job.
Jesus gives us insight to this in Luke 6:38. "If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving, large or small, it will be used to measure what is given back to you."
God's job is to supply, to provide the power. Our job, our life, is summed up in a word: Give.
We could also use the word serve. In Matthew 23:11 Jesus says, "The greatest among you will be your servant." God's job is to supply the power. Our job is to access the power by giving and serving.
Were you to do a survey of the Bible, you would see this principle in action time after time. What we have in common with the saints is that we're fellow sojourners who access God's power in the same way.
When we give what we have (after all, we can't give what we don't have), when we're asked to give it, we access the power of God and are enabled to live an empowered life. The word give in Luke's passage is in the present tense and implies continuous action. Giving does not stop with an act or a percentage. It becomes an attitude and an unceasing demonstration.
Not equal giving, but equal sacrifice.
Notice also that there are no contingencies, no loopholes. Nobody can reply, "But I have nothing to give." Not everyone can give an equal amount. That's why we say, "Not equal giving, but equal sacrifice." But when we do sacrifice equally, miracles happen.
Elisabeth Elliot once wrote, "Personal sacrifice paves the way for God's miracles." But everyone has something to give. Only dead people have nothing to give.
But have you noticed, there are more than a few zombies lurking around the fringes of God's work? They're the living dead. And they have out of control appetites and look out only for themselves. Maybe that's one reason that there's a resurgence in the popularity of zombies. There's so many of them around.
Dead people don't see that they have something to give. And they don't know what they're missing. And they think they're alive when they're really dead. That's one reason why you never see a gathering of zombies take up an offering.
How do you release the power of God in your life?
Give what you have, when you're asked to give it.
Serve in line with kingdom purposes and principles.
Receive God's power.
Give - Serve - Receive.
You don't receive just a little of the power. You receive God's power in good measure- all that you need. Pressed down- so that you can receive satisfaction. Shaken together- to make room for more. Running over- a continuous flow. That's how we grow spiritually.
So, let's recap here. The kingdom is power, not talk. The gospel is the power of God. God's job is to supply and to provide the power. Our job is to give and to serve. That enables us to live God-powered lives and have our needs met. Now we're ready for the practical application. The place to start in your giving and service is at the point of your greatest present need.
What is your greatest need, right now?
Suppose you never have enough time. You unconsciously accuse God of being unwise in creating days that are too short to do everything you think you need to do. Obviously, you can't get any more time. You have all of it that there is. But to make better use of it, apply this principle: Give more of your time away.
Deliberately give God more time the first thing in the morning. In the midst of your busy day, seek someone out who has a need and give them some of the most precious commodity that you have-- time. And what you'll discover is that you'll have more productive time for everything else in your busy day.
The issue is not just the quantity of time. It's the quality of time. What you need is not merely more time. You need more productive and creative time.
Let's say that you're going through a period in your spiritual life where you feel as if you're not getting anything out of your spiritual life. Use the same principle. Don't look for someone else to provide you with what you need. You have the ability to experience the power of God. You have the ability to live a God-powered life and to have your needs met.
Find someone to serve. And then serve them. What you get out of your spiritual life is in direct proportion to what you put in. Accept a ministry responsibility. Maybe you're unsure of what or where you can make the biggest difference. Get out and give yourself away. Try something. Try anything.
Don't be afraid of failing. Give. Serve. And you will receive. How will you receive? Good measure. Pressed down. Shaken together. Overflowing.
Let's say you're in need of friendship. Then ask yourself first, "What am I willing to give to this friendship?" If you want a great friendship, a close friendship, you'll have to sacrifice. You'll have to suspend judgment. Stop being critical. Stop whining around. Turn to someone and say, "Who wants a judgmental whining friend?
You want a deep friendship? You'll have to give deeply. If you cultivate casual friendships, you'll have casual acquaintances. Whenever I hear somebody say that nobody cares, I think of this principle. Caring people are too busy to notice that nobody else cares.
Maybe you're looking for more than a friend. You're looking for a lifelong mate. If you give deception, immorality, and unfaithfulness, guess what you'll get back in the years to come? A lifetime of abuse and brokenness. You're looking for love in all the wrong places. You give integrity, set boundaries, and establish morals, then you'll get a lifelong relationship of love and care, filled with trust.
What you give to a relationship, you get back. How? Full measure. Pressed down. Shaken together. Overflowing.
Maybe you need energy and more physical strength. You must expend energy to receive energy. In one sense, it seems just the opposite of what it would seem. It would seem that if you were to lie around and do nothing, you would be able to store up energy, and have more than the person who is working out every day. But that's not the principle.
When you expend a muscle to the point of exhaustion, you get a bigger muscle. It is as Jesus said, we determine the measurement.
Maybe what you need more than anything is a life. Maybe you're existing, but not living. In Matthew 10:39 Jesus says, "Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."
Jesus came to bring us abundant life.
The life Jesus came to bring, he says is abundant life. Life that is full measure. Pressed down. Shaken together. Overflowing.
Maybe some of you have been holding on to your life so tightly that you've squeezed the living out of it. And today, you need to talk to someone about how you would go about giving your life away to Jesus.
God is looking for good investments.
Now it should come as no surprise that what is true in every other area of life is also true with our finances. God is looking for good investments. He's looking for those who see the mission, and fund the mission. He's looking for those who want to grow in faith and fulfillment through generosity.
There may be no greater lesson you can learn than the lesson of reciprocity. Everyone has something to give. And everyone has the opportunity to receive and have their needs met. It's impossible to give without it coming back to you. And it's impossible to keep what you won't give away.
There are three groups here this morning.
I've got a message for each group.
You are giving proportionately and consistently. Keep it up!
You've gone through tough times in this tough economy through no fault of your own. You're one of those who played by the rules and still suffered. Look up! God's not forgotten you.
You've got the capacity to give proportionately and consistently and you're not. Or you haven't in a while. Maybe you're feeling unfulfilled and stale in your spiritual life. Give it up! Give up trying to find fulfillment and happiness and purpose on your own. Start giving proportionately and consistently, even sacrificially. Then expect the measure you use will be the measure used to give back to you.
When you do start giving, two things will happen. First, you will receive God's power to meet your every need. Full measure. Pressed down. Shaken together. Overflowing.
Second, the mission of this church will continue to meet the needs of those desperately seeking a new life, even the zombies who don't know it. Expect the measure you use to be used to give back to you.