If You Love the Lord…

FUMC Henderson

2/11/07

Our mission as members of this church is to be “servants of God to the community and one another”….But that can’t happen unless we are faithful to Christ and to his church. This church is dependent on us, each of us, to fulfill that mission. And to do that we must fulfill the vows that we took when we joined and which we renew each time someone else joins the church.

That vow we took and renew includes our pledge to support the church with our prayers. Do you remember the church when you pray?

Please pray for each other that all may play a part in the well-being of the community: loving, forgiving, serving, and encouraging each other. That new hopes, friendships, and ideas may be born. Pray for the ministries for the church Wednesday night. The Sunday School program, youth program. Pray for the leaders of the church: teachers, Council members, The Work Group that has begun to follow up on the Goals set by the DDC. Pray for the trustees who keep up the buildings up with way too little money. Pray for those who stay and clean up after everyone else has gone. And those who come early to prepare for suppers, meetings and worship. And for those who at home prepare to lead a rehearsal or lesson. The choir for their faithfulness on Sundays—morning and evening, (on Thursdays). For Jill and the teachers, and the Board of Noah’s Ark. For the various volunteers who come around to help out.

Pray for all who dare tell their story of what Jesus, faith, and our church means to them. Pray for those who don’t think they have anything worth saying. Pray for those who listen with care. And for those who have no one to listen. Pray for our shut-ins and those who visit them. And prayer for those who pray for us and others—the ill, the soldiers.

What a ministry prayer is and what an important vow it is that you have taken.

We have vowed to support the church with our presence. That means we vowed to attend church services regularly. Your empowerment by the Holy Spirit is dependent on your attention to the Scriptures and prayer. We do that here in worship and study. Our mission statement reads, “We, the First United Methodist Church, are empowered by the Holy Spirit. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to do the things we as a church are called to do to be servants of the community and one another. We can’t have a deeper understanding and experience of God’s love without the Holy Spirit’s power. And how are we going to get it? Through worship!

I’ve just returned from a week at the Sacred Heart Retreat Center at the Sacred Heart monastery in Cullman Alabama. We, the ministers and lay folk from the Jackson District were invited to worship with the nuns for lauds in the morning; Eucharist at midday and vespers in the evening. Each of us, at the end of the week, said that those times of worship were the most meaning full part of the week. There was no preaching only singing, Scripture and prayer. What was so meaningful was being in the presence of God and opening our selves to the Holy Spirit, the beauty, the silence, the presence of fellow Christians.

There is something about worship that feeds our spirit. Some Sundays we might think our time here was wasted because we got nothing out of the service. No instant gratification. Nothing happened. That isn’t true. Some times the meals you get at home or away aren’t very memorable but they feed you. Just in being here--showing up for God, opening your heart and mind to the spirit, you are being fed whether you know it or know. God’s work in our life is not dependent on whether we are aware of God’s presence. I can’t stress strongly enough how just showing up for God is enough for God to work in your life.

On the other hand, come not for what you get. Come to worship because it is right to give God thanks and praise. To the Creator and giver of all that is. Do you have life? people who care? a job or income? a house? food? Come to give thanks. Don’t come to get, come to give.

Prayers, presence (attendance and not just for worship but for study and the many opportunities for service.) Prayers, Presence, GIFTS!

If you love the Lord… Make an offering of your life. Put your money where you mouth is. The Old Testament text for this morning quotes God as saying, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there might be food in my house.” That food in the Lord’s house meant ministry to the widows and orphans, the hungry, the ill and the priests in the temple. In today’s language that would read, “Bring the full tithe to the offering, so that there might be ministry in the church.” What’s a tithe? It’s the Old Testament term for ten percent.

Time and time again the Bible talks about a tithe. Time and time again, Jesus through a parable instructed his listeners to give. When Eugene Polk was the pastor of Polk St. Church in Texas, he put these words on the church sign:

Make Polk Street Church a tithing church.

v Abraham commenced it.

v Jacob continued it.

v Moses commanded it.

v Malachi confirmed it.

v Jesus commended it.

v The church observed it.

The Levitical code, under which all Jews lived, required that they give at least 10% of their crops and cattle to God as His share. And by tithing the Israelites gave proof that they saw God as the source and provider of all; and that God was worthy of their worship in a tangible way. Wayne Fesmire (he preached here for me last year.) When he was the Superintendent told the preachers of the Paducah District, “We can profess faith and come to church, sing and pray, but our stewardship shows the depth of our faith.” He wasn’t talking about the dollar amount. It’s the degree of our sacrifice. We can talk a good story but our offering tells the tale. How important is your church? Do you make a regular offering? Is it a tithe or are you approaching a tithe?

The Rev. Polk put on the church sign: The church observed it. The early church. The first Christians were observant Jews. They recognized Jesus as the Messiah that their prophets had promised was coming. They understood that Jesus had come to save Israel. The first Christian were faithful Jews. They went to the Temple on Saturday, the seventh day of the week, and to church on the Sabbath, the first day of the week. They gave a tithe to the Temple and an offering to the church. When the church spread beyond Israel to the Gentiles who lived only under Roman rule they paid taxes and made an offering to the church. So why did they--tithe? After all they weren’t living under the Levitical Code. They did it because they loved the Lord and recognized Him as the source not only of life and sustenance; but of mercy, grace and salvation. They tithed because they’d received unconditional love, forgiveness and eternal life—from the hand of the Lord and they wanted to say thanks.

It’s a wonder that so many Christians today don’t make a more acceptable sacrifice to God. We don’t live under the Levitical Code (that’s right) and God’s going to love and give to us whatever the degree of our sacrifice. But we owe god a great debt and “it is right to give God thanks and praise.”

I understand that many can’t be responsible stewards because they have been irresponsible with their income and there’s no money left at the end of the week to make an offering. Certainly we must pay of debts to our creditors to whom we made a contract. But we should start today working our way to a tithe. Too often at the end of a pay period Jodie and I come up short of money. But we don’t take any out of the offering money. That takes priority before our spending money. It’s a line in the budget just like the credit card payment, car payment, and so on. Your offering to the church ought to be an item figured into your weekly, monthly or whatever spending.

If you don’t have the talent to make a budget—let me know and, in confidence, I’ll find you some help. A budget is a necessity for survival. Make yourself a budget or find someone who can. And include God in your planning.

Prayer, presence, gifts, and service.

How to serve the church? We’re talking here about works hands on service in the church and community. The opportunities are only limited by our imagination. Any thing that you do for the Lord is ministry. In the monastery one nun leads Yoga classes, another made and taught pottery. Some took care of the gardens, others worked in the kitchen, others cleaned, or worked in the office or gift shop. Ways to service God through service to the church are too numerous to list.

Handing our angel food, sorting through used clothing and shoes, keeping the nursery, weeding and watering the shrubbery, are as valued a ministry as distributing the sacrament on Sunday morning. The ministries of the church are limitless.

But whatever you do do it as if you were doing it for Jesus because that is who you are doing it for.

But don’t wait to be asked. Because those who do the recruiting of volunteers are tired of being told “No.”--however politely it’s done. Too often those whose job it is to find someone to do a job go first those they know will not say no, but probably should because they’re already doing too much.

Rather than “recruiters of volunteers” these folk like Sunday School Superintendent who recruit teachers, workers with youth who recruit counselors, worship leaders who recruit readers or those to prepare communion, trustees getting workers for this job or that, these recruiters ought to be called coordinators rather than recruiters because God has called each of us to serve and we have each taken a vow to do so. You ought to be waiting in line for your chance to serve this church who serves you.

A year ago Pastor Denny Bellesi gave $100 to 100 members of his church, Coast Hill Community Church in Orange County. Bellesi called the program, "The Kingdom Assignment" and it was used as a way to illustrate Jesus' parable of the servants and the talents:

A master, before going on an extended trip, gave one of his servants one talent, another two and another five. When he returned he asked the servants for an accounting. The servant that had been five talents returned the five to the master with five more. Likewise with the two talent servant, he returned the original two with two more. But the one talent servant was afraid of the master and that he’d be punished if he lost the talent so he went and hid it. When he returned to the master with only the one talent the master rebuked him for not even putting the money into a bank to draw a minimum of interest. The lazy slave was expelled from the farm.

In the story of the church where 100 were given $100 each, the good returns came in many forms.

One member helped an immigrant family pay for the funerals of two daughters who died from a rare blood disease. Another used the $100 to start a project that raised thousands of dollars to fund the construction of a women's shelter.

The pastor’s idea caught the attention of a local businessman who started a similar corporate charity program aimed at helping the community. So far, the original $10,000 has turned into more than $500,000 in gifts, volunteer work and donations.

The parable of the talents is about recognizing that everyone has a gift or two to be used for the church: praying, singing, collecting aluminum cans, sewing, visiting, art, mailing cards, folding newsletters, feeding the hungry, telling your story…and each of us is accountable for using our gift before God.

“For to everyone who uses his gift, more will be given, and he will have in abundance. But whoever does not use what gifts he has been given, even that will be taken away from him.”

It’s the same with the church. To the church whose members use their gifts for ministry, more will be given. But the church whose members do not use their gifts for the church, even what they have been given will be taken away and the church will die.

I believe that each of us wants to support the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, and service. Because when we do both we and the church will grow in so many ways.