Lathem Postell: I will say, unlike SEC officials, if you start throwing stuff at me, I won't stop talking. I I was concerned I think, I guess, it was Leah's bottle. I I kind of got thrown back to last night. I thought folks were starting to throw stuff. So, that's my one football joke for today.
I I need to have one every now and then. It's good to be with you in worship this morning. Today is the conclusion of our the use of money sermon series that we've been talking about in October here. I want to be clear. I'm not saying, and this is on purpose, this is not the end of stewardship month.
As Elaine told you, next week we're gonna have our serve Sunday. So we're gonna worship a little differently than we normally would. We're gonna worship through service. And so I'm intentional. That's a part of our stewardship month.
We're gonna we're gonna come together, and we're gonna serve together. We're gonna sort through, and pack, and find the expired on so many. I mean literally tons of food cans and boxes, and that's a part of stewardship and I want that to be clear, but this morning we are going to finish up our sermon series here on the use of money which has guided our time through stewardship. It is a big word. I mean you heard about it in our bumper video.
Right? It's a it's a churchy word. I say it's a big word. It's not hard to spell. It's a big word because of the content.
You know, we we can try and boil it down. It has so many meanings. Right? We might just say being a good steward is using our resources well. But but the reason that is such a big word is because that applies to so many things.
It applies to to our life, our health, our families, our our our talents, our effort, and and yes, even our money. Right? Stewardship is a big word. And if I've said this once, I'll I'll say it a 1000000 times. I know I'll say it again in the future.
I know I've told it to you before. I can say, I don't like standing up on Sunday mornings and talking about money. This feels wrong. And I'll be honest about that. And, I said last week, when we start using the word money in church, you probably kind of grates against you a little bit too.
It doesn't feel like what we should be doing. We're supposed to be talking about Jesus. And again, to to give you just some honesty, it's always my fear. And and I hope it's not true. You know, it's my fear that somebody out there this is gonna be the first time you've been in a church for maybe 30 years, or or maybe you've never gone to church before and you finally said, this is the Sunday I'm gonna go.
And then you get up here, and today we're talking about money. Right? And you think, well, of course they are. This is what they always talk about. Right?
I I get that. And and it's weird for me. It's weird for you. I I wish that we didn't have to do this. But but I've begun the more I've done this year after year after year after year.
What what I've realized is, and this is God working on on my heart, is that that we have to talk about it. Jesus talked about it. And he's a lot wiser than I am. 16 of his parables had to do with money. How we're to use it as followers of him.
Right? We have to talk about it. If Jesus talked about it, we should probably talk about it. And I think Jesus understood something. Of course, he understands a lot more than we do.
He understands something that that we can easily forget. That money is one of those things that can quickly become an idol. You know, we're in the Bible. We're often told to follow 1 God. We're to follow God Himself.
Right? Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We're not to worship idols. And when we hear that, we think that's old language. We think about little figurines that they'd place on their mantles.
These little deities, regional deities that they might worship. Sure. It's talking about that. But but to us today, who who that's not our context. Right?
We have to begin to think, well, what are those things that we make idols in our life? What are those things we put on a pedestal? What are those things that we begin to worship? I I would submit to you that that money might be number 1. Money has a sneaky way of becoming God in our life.
So if we're gonna, you know, I'd I'd rather just get up here and talk about Jesus, and we're still doing that. Right? I'd rather get up here and talk about the cross. I'd rather get up and talk about all of those things. But what I've come to realize, and hopefully you see it too, if we're gonna truly follow Jesus, if we're gonna make him Lord of our life, it has to apply to every facet of our lives.
Not just the ones we like to talk about. It has to be every aspect of our life. From the things we think about, to the things we say, to yes, even the things we spend our money on. I get that this isn't easy to talk about. I wish we didn't have to.
I was thinking earlier, Lord, is this the cross I've got to pick up and carry? Why do we have to talk about it? We have to talk about it because you can only serve one master. You can't serve both God and money. We got to talk about it.
But again, I know it's difficult. So my hope has been that this use of money has been a way that we can talk about it well. If you weren't here the past couple weeks, the use of money is a sermon that was written 200 years ago by John Wesley, who was the founder of the Methodist Movement. And so, he wrote this sermon as a guide for Christians to give us three principles that if we'll apply these, we'll kind of have a biblical way of understanding how we're to use money. And so I hope you'll memorize these.
We've talked about them, but I'll remind you of them. Three things we're to do. To gain all we can, to save all we can, and to give all we can. We've we've gone through the first two. To gain all we can.
To to save all we can. And so this week, kind of the the grand finale, the part that separates us, right, which is that we're called to give all we can. To talk about that, I'll invite us to open to our scripture. So if you have your bibles with you this morning, I invite you to turn to Luke chapter 20. If you ever wanna see, hey, where in the bible does it talk about money?
Start with the gospel of Luke. That that that's where it talks about it a lot. We're gonna be in Luke chapter 20, starting with verse 45. We're gonna actually read through chapter 21 into verse 4. Okay?
So starting in 20 reading into 21, it should be on the screen behind me as well. But let let us listen here to these words of Jesus who tells us this. While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes, and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows houses, and for a show, they make lengthy prayers.
These men will be punished most severely. As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in 2 very small copper coins. Truly, I tell you, he said, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth.
But she gave out of her poverty and put in all she had to live on. Let's pray. Loving and gracious God, we thank you for the gift of your scripture and the gift of this time that we can just gather and worship you in song and in word. Lord, we ask that you use this word. Speak to our hearts.
Soften us, Lord. Turn us to you, that we might come to look more like your son, Jesus. For it's in His name that we pray. Amen. We've talked, and hopefully I've convinced you by now, that money is a tool.
It can be a seductive tool, but but it's a tool nonetheless. Right? If we use it poorly, it will lead to destruction. Turn on the news. Right?
Look at famous people and their lives, and it's not hard to see the places where good people, who all of a sudden decide that money is gonna be the priority of their life. They seek after and it leads to their destruction. But you don't have to just turn to those on TV. Look at normal everyday people, board members, teachers, pastors even. Right?
Just normal salt of the earth people who pursue money and lose everything. Money is a tool. Yes. But it is seductive. If we don't use it properly properly, we better be careful because it will lead to destruction.
But if we use it well, it'll be used for the building of God's kingdom. The bottom line is money doesn't have to be a bad thing, if we use it well. So this is why John Wesley, he gives to his people. He gives to the Methodists. He gives to us these three guiding principles that he says, look, if you'll follow this, you'll be able to use the tool well.
So, first, gain all that you can. Right? If we're gonna look at money as a tool, well then, if we have more of it, we can use it better. So gain all that you can. But there's another rule.
Right? Not just gain all that you can, but save all that you can. If it's a tool, we better use it properly. We should not spend it on things that we don't need, or or frivolous items. So gain all that we can, so that we can use the tool.
Save all that we can. Don't waste the tool, but then none of that really matters, unless we get to the 3rd piece. Give all that you can. This is that, so that. Right?
We talked about that at the end of the sermon last week. This is the the so that. This is why we do what we do. Think about it this way. Right?
If you had the best shovel, the nicest shovel, the most shovels, they would do you no good if you left them in the garage. You can't dig a hole there. A tool that's not used, doesn't matter how nice it is or how many you have, is worthless. There has to be a so that. This is our so that with money.
So that we can give all we can. Now, we're gonna need some caveats here and I I understand this. Right? Because that's a big statement to give all we can. John Wesley understood that.
So he he gave us some things to consider as we look at what it means for us to give all we can. First, he said, take care of your necessities. Food, water, clothing. Those things you need to live. I think about a plane, if you've ever flown, or if you've just watched it on TV or movies.
When the cabin pressure, and they they have the masks, you know the phrase, they always tell you to put your mask on first before you help someone who's seated next to you. Because they realize, in that moment, if you pass out because of lack of oxygen, well, you can't help anybody else on the plane. John Wesley saying, the same thing applies here. Take care of your needs. If you need help, well then, how are you ever gonna help somebody else?
It might mean, you know, this picture is kind of a good image of that. It might mean we need to reconsider what our needs are versus our wants. That's a conversation for another day. Right? But but but take care of your needs.
2nd, he says, take care of those who depend on you. Right. So it's not just you that needs food, but but who are those in your life? Your your your family, Your friends? Those those close people in your life.
Take care of them too. Right? Because again, they can't help others if they need help themselves. Take care of your responsibilities, basically, is what he's saying. But but once we've done that, we're called to give all we can.
That's the end game, so to speak, for how we should approach money. As we talked about, that's what distinguishes us as different. The world loves the idea of gain all you can, save all you can. Talk to any financial advisor out there. They would tell you, that is sound advice.
The third one is our so that. We do that, not for ourselves, but we do it so that it shows that we're a follower of Jesus. And so, consider for a moment, as we think about what it like for us to give all we can. Consider this scripture that we read together from Luke. And I'll be honest, it's not an easy passage of scripture to read.
It isn't one of those happy go lucky scriptures that we just love to read that makes us feel good. Right? This is hard to read, especially in our context. To to put it there for us, because we often forget this, of just how blessed we are. According to a Pew Research Center study that was done a few years ago, it determined that a high income earner across the world is someone who lives on more than $50 a day.
Think about that for a moment. If you could do quick math, I I had to do it on a calculator. You might be smarter than I am. That that tends to be about $18,000, a little more than $18,000 a year. That on a world scale is a high income earner.
I I was actually surprised. Only 56% of Americans fall in this bracket. Again, this this research is a little bit, outdated. It's a few years old. So that that's probably slightly different now.
56% of Americans, as opposed to 7% of the world, which means, if you live on more than $50 a day, you're in the top 10% of the world. Top 10%, $18,000. Now each of us in here are different. Right? We we know that some of us make more and some of us make less.
That's not what we're talking about this morning. What I want you to see with that number is simple, that you are blessed. Just full stop. You are blessed. If you're here this morning, you're blessed.
Which is why this scripture is really hard to read. Because we probably connect a lot more to the rich person than we do the poor widow in the story. And so we read this and Jesus says, beware. And I joked at 8:30. He says, beware those wearing flowing robes, teachers of the law.
And I looked down. I thought, well, I'm wearing a robe and I'm teaching in front of people. So I really need to be aware. At least in here, I'm I'm not wearing a robe. I'd like to think he's talking about flashy clothing.
Right? But but still, we must beware. But he says, beware. Beware those who seek out respect and honor. Beware those who step on others like widows for their own gain.
He says, all of these bewares. Right? Of course, if you find those people, he means stay away. But for us, who identify with the rich people in the story, perhaps he's saying, beware that you don't become like them. Right?
This is tough to read. It's tough for me. I like new clothes. I like to be treated with honor and respect. If you invite me over to an event, I don't mind being sat at a prestigious spot at the table.
Makes me feel good. If you're like me, beware. Because those that give into these temptations will be punished most severely. That's what Jesus says. I'm not saying that.
Jesus says, those who give into those temptations, if that's what you're seeking, that will be punished most severely. These are not easy words to read. It's why I think this third rule is so important. It's crucial to give all we can. Jesus is saying, don't give like the rich people in the story who gave out of their wealth.
What's left over. Instead, he holds up for us and says, give like the poor woman. She gave all she could. At the end of the day, he's saying, this is what stewardship looks like. Because stewardship, if we boil it down, is just a practice and understanding that the God is the one in control and we are not.
It's why doing this part of the three rules is the hardest. Think back to them. Right? Gain all we can. Great.
I got more money in my bank account. I'm in control. Save all we can. Even more wonderful. Right?
I'll use it later. It's still in my account though. I'll get to use it. If I need it later, I can pull from it. Give all we can.
Woah. Wait a minute there. That requires me to hand it over. It's no longer mine to do with what I want. When we give, we let go.
By giving, we trust that God can do more with our resources than we can. And friends, that's hard. We might say it all we want, but we don't often live like that's true. Do we believe that God can do more with it than we can? Here's the question I want you to ask yourself, and and maybe you've been giving for a long time.
And and hear me when I say, giving doesn't mean just to Sam Jones Methodist Church. Sure. That that that's included here, but but maybe you've been giving to other organizations. There's so many great mission organizations out there. Some in our own community.
Some across the word world who who are just doing fantastic work. Right. So so think about it in your mind, what you're giving, what your generosity looks like. So so so have that in in your mind, and then ask yourself this question. Do you give from a place of control?
Or do you give from a place of surrender? That's what Jesus is trying to help us see here in this scripture passage. The rich people gave from a place of control. They gave from their wealth, from the excess, from the margins. They gave what they could afford to give.
And in turn, they really gave nothing of value. They gave what they didn't need, the the scraps, the leftovers. Fine, God. You you can have this. I don't need it.
On the other side, the poor widow gave out of sacrifice. She gave everything. She understood that giving is an exercise in trust. I'm gonna say something that probably sounds weird in a stewardship sermon, but but I mean it. And I hope you hear the sincerity of it.
Stewardship is not about God needing your money. Think back. Right? How how foolish will we be to think that that stewardship is about God needing our money. God created the world.
He he doesn't need your money. In fact, stewardship giving is a way for us to see that we need him. Stewardship is about reminding ourselves who God is. It's about reminding ourselves that he is in control, and we are not. It's about reminding ourselves of what I said earlier, that that our blessings are not something we've created, but something we've been given.
Not so that we can enjoy them ourselves, but so that we might share them with the world. So that everyone else can see that what they have is also a gift of God. That's what the poor woman understood. She had 2 copper coins. She had nothing, but she knew that it came from God.
That's what the rich people couldn't understand. You are called to give all you can. Does that mean it with your finances, with your money? Yes. It does.
The but that doesn't mean it only goes there. Right? Does that mean you're called to give all of your time? Yes. Every second of your life should be a gift to God.
Does it mean it should be with your effort? Yes. Should it be with your talents? Yes. The list goes on and on.
If you have something of value, it should be given and sacrificed to God. You were called to give all that you can, because God has already given you all that He could. He gave you the breath in your lungs, and He sent His son, Jesus Christ, to die for you. So that you might have the gift of eternal life. If you have anything of value, it's God's.
So giving becomes about having the right posture. It becomes about having a posture of sacrifice, where we remind ourselves that God should be first and everything else is second. God first. Everything else second. And so, yes.
If you've never given to to the church, if you've never given to to an organization Again, there's so many. If you want to hear about some good ones, come and talk to me. If you've never given somebody a dollar that you've passed on the street. I want to challenge you this morning to do that. Not because they need it, which might sound strange.
Sure. They do. Go and talk to any 501c3 mission organization out there. They'll show you where they need it and where in their budget they need it. I'll be honest.
Does the church need it? Of course. It's one of the reasons we bring it up every October, because we try to be good stewards of what we've been given. Right? The commitment cards that you turn in help us to do our job to be faithful stewards of what God has given us.
So sure, does the church need it? Yes. But that's not why I want you to do this, and I mean that. I want you to do it, because I believe by giving to God, you allow yourself to see Him in action in your life, in a new way. Now, I'm not going to be up here like like others who might tell you, look.
If you give this Right? You're planting a seed that God's going to then take and multiply. And you're going to receive financial blessings later, because of that. That's not this sermon. I promise.
Can God do that? Sure. God can do what he wants to. I just said, he created the world. I'm not going to put God in a box there.
But, this is not about you reaping some future financial reward. What it's about is this. What I hope you will see in your life is that sacrificial generosity allows us to see the abundant faithfulness of God. If you want to see God in a new way, be generous. If you want to see God answer prayers, pray prayers that only God can answer.
If you want to see God in action, if you want to see him show up, give all that you can. Because in doing that, you start to rely on God. Yourself in moments where the only answer to why you were able to go forward was God himself. When we give from the excess, we rely on ourselves. When we give in abundance, when we give all we can, we rely on God.
The reason I talk about this is, I'm convinced I've become convinced that giving is a gift, not because we receive something as a result of it, but because when we do that, we get to see God in a new way. You are stewards of his creation. That was your original design. God created you to steward his creation. He has blessed you from the very beginning of time until now, so that you might use those things for good.
Everything you have belongs to God. Tools ready to to be equipped and sent out to impact his kingdom. The the the question for a day like today is not how much. The question is, will you use them? Will you use what you have to share Jesus with others?
Gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can. Let's pray. Loving and gracious God, Lord, as we think, and as we reflect and as we hear your scriptures, we are reminded that you are a God of abundant blessings. The fact that we are here today, the fact that we have breath in our lungs is a gift. You have blessed us with our context.
Lord, for where we live and for many of us, the money we make, Lord, this is such a blessing that you have given us. And and so, God, for all of those times in our life where we have forgotten your place in the equation, where we failed to notice your blessing in our life and instead taken pride in what we've done, we just ask for your forgiveness. Make us to be humble people. Make us to be generous people. But, Lord, don't just make us generous with our finances.
Make us generous with everything. That's what it means to give all that we can. Lord, when we're in the grocery store, may we have a generous spirit. When we see our cashier who's having a bad day, let us have generous smiles, generous and warm hearts. Lord, when we pass somebody on the streets, may we be generous to show them Jesus.
Lord, when was the last time that we generously told people about you? Help us, Lord, to be people of generosity. Help us, Lord, to to start looking at our blessings as not things for us, but instead things for the world. Help us to give, but not to give like the rich people in the story who gave out of excess, who gave what they could on at the end of the day, it's what they had left over. But Lord, help us to give like the poor widow, who gave all she had.
Because she knew that you were in control and she wasn't. But we thank you for the gift of generosity, for the gift of giving, because we know that in doing so, we get to see you in a new way. And, Lord, you're what we want more than any money, more than any title. We want you. For it's in your name, the name of your son, Jesus the Christ, that we offer this prayer.
Amen. Amen.