Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

“Give it All, Part 2”

Rev. Meagan Boozer

Faith without works is dead.

IF you say you believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who came to earth to save all the people of the world from eternal death as sinners;

IF you say you believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth, died with your sins on his back, and rose again having left your sin in the depths of the earth giving you eternal life as a forgiven sinner-

THEN, James says that others ought to be able to see what you believe in the way that you put your faith to work.

Faith without works is a dead faith that makes no difference in your own life or the lives of other people.

Faith combined with works makes for a vibrant, living faith that makes a sparkling difference in your own life, and an everlasting difference in the lives of other people.

That’s what we learned last Sunday. But in his letter, James wasn’t talking about just any kind of works (although the teaching can accurately cover all kinds of works). James had a specific kind of works in mind. Let’s take a look:

James 2:1-8

My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit a my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you? You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love you neighbor as yourself.”

James 2:14-17

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

James 4:13-5:3

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in you arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days.

James is feisty! James is frustrated that the people who say they have a saving faith in Jesus Christ are not taking care of the needs of the people around them.

James is frustrated that Christians spend more time with those who have already received help, than with those who need help.

He is frustrated that believers are storing up money for their own use (for the proverbial “rainy day” fund), when they should be using their money to take care of the obvious immediate needs in their community.

James is frustrated with their lack of works of giving that would prove and grow the authenticity of their faith.

James ask the question, “Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?”

James knows that it is those who have little (materially) who trust him the most (because they have to, or they will lose hope). Just ask anyone who has ever gone to a third world country about the faith and the joy of the people there; they have little to nothing in terms of material possessions, and yet their joy is full and contagious- which is how our joy is supposed to be- and can be when we get our eyes and our hands off of all the stuff/money that God has given to us.

Let me give you a visual. (Put 10 hymnals on a pile.)

This pile represents everything we have. But let’s say for today’s teaching that this pile represents our annual income. (This includes kids who make an allowance, and for teens who have a part-time job.) This pile is our annual income. God gave us this money. Yes, you earned it by the work you did- but God gave you the ability to work, the ability to deposit it into an account. This is first and foremost God’s money. Without God, none of us would be here, and consequently this whole pile wouldn’t be here. God deserves all the credit for this pile, right here. It all belongs to God! And God could say that he wants it all back! But…

We serve such a loving God. We serve a God who came to earth and who knows the difficulty of living here. We serve a God who understands our needs and who knows about our want (the selfish and the sanctified ones). We serve a God who loves us too much to let our selfish wants get in the way our seeing and helping to meet the needs of the world. And so, in his wisdom, God determined that giving back to Him a minimum of 10% (1 hymnal) of this annual income is what it takes to help us keep our selfish wants in check. Don’t you wonder how much of a difference we could make if all the people in all the Christian churches in all the world would actually give 10% to the work of caring for the world? I know one thing for sure: 30,000 children wouldn’t die of hunger every day.

So, why don’t we do what God asks us to do? Why don’t we give to God the first fruits of our income?

Lack of biblical education (what God really says about our giving and why),
Lack of faith that we can actually live on 90% (or less), which translates into:
Fear.

Here are some Scriptural foundations for giving 1/10^th of the annual harvest (income):

Genesis 28:20-22 (This is when God was telling Jacob all the blessings He was going to give him if Jacob would do as God asked), “Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.”

Leviticus 27:32, “All tithes of herd and flock, every tenth one that passes under the shepherd’s staff, shall be holy to the LORD.”

Malachi 3:8-12, “Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, “How are we robbing you?” In your tithes and offerings! You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me- the whole nation of you! 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 your and pour down for you an overflowing blessing…Then all nations will count you happy, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.”

The very word “tithe,” means a tenth! (That’s a very brief overview of the tithe.) So, if you believe that this is what God is telling his people to give, how do you overcome your fears and actually do it?

Well, what are we told to do when we fall off a horse? Get back on. What are we supposed to do if we’re afraid of closed spaces? Take a ride in an elevator. What should we do if we’re afraid of the water? Get in the water-not by jumping in the deep end- but by wading in, one step at a time.

This same principle works in our giving, too.

Here’s another visual to help us: (with all 10 of the hymnals piled on the side of the pulpit).

I’m so short that I can show you how to overcome your fear and build your faith in your giving.

I can’t se over these hymnals very well. All I can really see is my own little side of the wall. All I can really see are my own needs and wants. But as I give away a little, I can see a little bit of what’s going on our there. And because God has pierced my heart with his love, I can’t help but notice that there are more needs out there that I had ever thought about before. And then, because my heart is pierced with God’s love, I want to do more. And so I do. I give a little more, and I see that I was able to help more people (and I realize that I haven’t been thinking so much about my own needs and wants, and I realize that even though I gave more away, I still have more than enough right here for my needs.) Fear is effectively being replaced with more and more faith, one step at a time. This is precisely what has happened over the last several year with this congregation and our giving.

In 2002, we had a budgeted expenses of $75,000 of which $4,500 (or 6%) was budgeted mission giving.

In 2003, we had budgeted expenses of $93,000 of which $6,500 (or 7%) was budgeted mission giving.

In 2004, we had budgeted expenses of $116,000 which $8,600 (or 7.5%) was budgeted mission giving.

In 2005, we made that great step of faith! We had budgeted expenses of $107,000 and pledged to disburse an addition full 10% for mission giving.

1n 2006, we had budgeted expenses of $118,000 and pledged to disburse an additional full 12% for mission giving- a total of $14,000.

What I’ve learned through the last 4 year of ministry with this congregation is that what is budgeted to give away and what is actually given away is always more. If there are special needs that come up, including in the last several years the need to support mission trip expenses, this congregation pitches in until the needs are met. In 2005, the first year that we met God’s minimum standard of giving away a full 10%, we intended to give away $10,500. We actually gave away $18,000- or 16.8%! And, we ended the year with a $19,700 surplus! So, we tithed on the surplus (gave $2,000 more away) and put $7,750 in a CD. So far this year, we have a $10,000 surplus even though we have given away about $22,000 or 17% of our total expenses.

God’s instructions are not just for our good, God’s instructions are for the greater good! The more you give away, the more you see the need, and the more you see and feel the need, God gives you more to give away. And through all of this, God is erasing fear and increasing faith.

How is he doing with you?

How are you doing with exercising your faith by giving back to God what God is asking of you?

Now, some of you may be saying something like this to yourself, “Well, for the last number of years, I’ve given $35 a week to the church, and that’s what I’m giving this year,” without even checking to see if what you’re giving is 10%, 6%, or 2% of your income. Don’t you even want to try to do what God asks? Please don’t let years of habit keep you from the joy of obedience!

Some others of you may be saying, “Well, Meagan, I hear you, but from what you just told us about our financial health, I’m wondering why I should increase my giving. We seem to be doing just fine- I think I’ll hold onto my money until you really need it.”

But see, that’s thinking from a worldly not a biblical point of view- and it completely misses God’s purpose in calling us to give. We don’t give because the church needs the money. Here at this church, we don’t even do our budget with income vs. expenses to determine whether we can pay our bills or not with what we are projecting. We put together a faith budget every year based on what we believe God is calling us to do. A good faith budget should serve as a pretty clear mission statement. A person should be able to look at our budget and be able to tell what things are important to us. And I think our budget is increasingly becoming just that. We don’t give to fulfill a bottom line on a budget sheet, we give to fulfill a mission that includes making you and me more like Jesus in every way.

I don’t want your money. God doesn’t really want your money. He wants YOU! He wants your heart! He wants your heart to be like his, and he has told us that giving a portion of our money away is one way, one important way, that our hearts can become more like his, and I don’t question him on that!

Listen to what Steven Curtis Chapman and his pastor, Scotty Smith have to say about this (from Restoring Broken Things, pp.246-248):

How then are we to live on earth to the glory of God? What will living as true worshipers require of us? Among many good suggestions, Scotty and I want to offer one of the most basic, simple, and tangible ways all of us can participate in Jesus’ commitment to make all things new. It beings with reexamining our relationship with money- what we earn and what we are given. To be specific, what would keep any of us from setting aside at least 10 percent of whatever monies we receive for the things about which Jesus is passionate? What possible reason could we give for not choosing to do so? This isn’t legalism- it’s love.

Jesus talked a great deal about money. In fact 16 of his 38 parables are concerned with how people handle money and possessions. In the Gospels, 1 out of every 10 verses deals directly with the issue of money. The Bible, as a whole, presents 500 verses on prayer and less than 500 verses on faith, but more than 2000 verses on money and possessions. If followers of Jesus in the Roman world of the 1^st century proclaimed, “Jesus is Lord, and Caesar is not!” then followers of Jesus in America of the 21^st century need to proclaim, “Jesus is Lord, and money is not!”

We need markers to remind us of our participation in God’s story of liberation and generosity. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the 2 main markers we have been given. But on a weekly basis, presenting tithes and love offerings to the Lord serve as a powerful reminder and participation in this story.

To tithe is to affirm with joy, “I am not my own. Everything I have and am belongs to Jesus, who, is by his grace, has completely pain the debt I owe God. He has brought me into the freedom and inhertitance of the sons of God, and has called me to live as a tenant in his world. I am simply a steward of his resources, and an agent of his mercy, justice, and peace. What an honor and privilege!”

Consider the following: Americans spent 217 billion dollars on Christmas gifts, decorations, and parties in 2003. Yet, in Africa, the World Trade Center falls twice a day as 6500 men, women, and children die of AIDS daily. There are 13 million AIDS orphans under the age of 15, and this number will reach 40 million by 2010. An estimated 200 million people we go to bed hungry every night in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 1933,when the Great Depression was at its worst, the average church member gave 3.3% of his income. By 2000, after 50 years of prosperity, the average church member gave 2.6%. If members of historically Christian churches in America had given 10% of their incomes in 2000, an additional $139 billion could have been invested in ministries of the gospel and caring for the poor.

Is there any doubt, then, about why we say that getting serious about loving Jesus will always involve getting serious about what we do with money?

John and I give a minimum of 10% of our income to the work of this church. It is the first check we write every week, and I never check to see if I have enough. I write the check in faith. I’m pretty sure I’ve never bounced a tithe check! And I’m positively sure we’ve always had all that we really need.

If everyone here increased their faith commitment to give God at least 1 more percentage point closer to or beyond the 10% standard of giving, just think what great stuff our hearts and our money could do for people who need help!

It’s so exciting to me to see us growing together in faith by the way we are spending God’s money as a church. I’m so blessed to be able to challenge you to grow even more into the likeness of Christ. More and more may this congregation become what God intended the church to be: A radiant church, without spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind, so that the church may be holy and without blemish (Eph. 5).

Let us pray:

O God, let it start, right here, with me. Rid me of my selfish wants and purify my heart. Make me want nothing more than knowing you, loving you, serving you, and trusting you with all my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength. Increase my faith, dear Father, in your provision for me. Increase my concern for those in need. May my life truly be an example of a faith that is alive and well for all to see so that they may give glory to you, and to my dear Savior, Jesus Christ in whose name we pray together: Our Father, who art in heaven……

Amen.

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

11-12-2006