Sermon for this week can be found here
Bible Readings for this week
Psalm 133
Isaiah 49:6
Ephesians 4:29-32
Matthew 18:15-20
Songs for this week
to come
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Sermon and Worship: Ephesians 2:11-22 Allowing God's Peace to
Sermon for this week can be found here
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Sermon Ephesians 1:3-14 Discovering our true purposes as planned by God
This weeks sermon Discovering our true purposes as planned by God is available at: http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=136946&Sermon
Songs and Hymns for this week
Songs for Portland 10.45am
SIS 496 Don’t you know
SIS 398 The song of acceptance
Lord I lift you name on high
AT 258 Jesus put this song
Amazing Love
AT 349 There is a redeemer
At 320 I was there to hear your borning
Your love: Reuben Morgan
Lord’s Prayer (Tscharke)
Awesome God
Hymns for Portland 9am
LHS 158 Jesus, lover of my soul
LHS 170 Chief of sinners though I be
AT 31 Freely Freely
LHS 344 Our God is love and all His saints
LHS 234 Facing a task unfinished
Hymns for Heywood 11am
LHS 158 Jesus lover of my soul
AT 31 Freely Freely
LHS 344 Our God is love and all his saints
AT 81 Make my life to be
Songs and Hymns for this week
Songs for Portland 10.45am
SIS 496 Don’t you know
SIS 398 The song of acceptance
Lord I lift you name on high
AT 258 Jesus put this song
Amazing Love
AT 349 There is a redeemer
At 320 I was there to hear your borning
Your love: Reuben Morgan
Lord’s Prayer (Tscharke)
Awesome God
Hymns for Portland 9am
LHS 158 Jesus, lover of my soul
LHS 170 Chief of sinners though I be
AT 31 Freely Freely
LHS 344 Our God is love and all His saints
LHS 234 Facing a task unfinished
Hymns for Heywood 11am
LHS 158 Jesus lover of my soul
AT 31 Freely Freely
LHS 344 Our God is love and all his saints
AT 81 Make my life to be
Monday, July 6, 2009
Sermon: Allowing God's strength to shine through our weakness 2 Corinthians 12:1-10
As we move towards a year of evangelism, do you think we are ready?
Probably a better questions to ask is,
are you ready to be part of the year of evangelism?
are you prepared to be involved in the year of evangelism?
All of us are called to be part of the year of evangelism.
All of us are called to be Jesus’ disciples involved in making disciples of all nations.
And so as you think about yourself and where you fit into next years picture of our congregation of being an evangelising congregation,
are you ready for this?
Now if we are to look ourselves alone,
or even our congregation
we can probably highlight a number of areas where we are inadequate.
This is not an unfamiliar story for people involved in God’s work.
Think about some of the significant biblical characters.
Moses initially resisted God’s call, saying he was not good enough.
David was seen as someone not worthy to fight Goliath
And look at the disciples Jesus chose
They included fishermen, tax collectors, who would pick them?
and even as disciples they had problems
John and James tried to secretly gain some extra power
Peter tried to get out of forgiving his brother.
And in today’s reading Paul highlights to the Corinthians and to us
that Yes he does have a weakness.
But rather than allow the weakness to stop him from participating in God’s work
Paul highlights that his weakness shows that God and God’s grace is essential.
You see Paul was addressing a congregation that had begun despising him.
And part of the reason was they were becoming interested in what they believed God could do for them right now.
They were interested in how they felt right now.
They were more interested in how God could bless them financially, materially and with a better life now.
Now it is true that God brings blessings to us today,
however these are not where we should put our focus.
God wants us to have the focus on the eternal life, the life with Him and others.
Unfortunately, the Corinthians had become more interested in following teachings that were not consistent with the God of the bible.
Teaching that encouraged them to highlight how good they were,
that put themselves first
rather than Jesus and his commandments of
“Loving God and loving others.”
And so Paul is now reminding them that although these teachings sound attractive,
they are not of God.
They are actually leading people away from God.
So what does this mean for us?
Well we all have weaknesses
All of us have things in our life that can make us feel inadequate.
We may even feel like God has deserted us at times.
Can you think of some of your weaknesses??
And what about when it comes to being part of evangelising congregation?
A Christian community who is at work bringing God’s grace to people.
What do you think your weaknesses are?
If we are honest, we can probably name a few.
There are two constructive things we can do with our weaknesses
First what if we allowed our weaknesses to become strengths for God.
The first reality as we look around at our congregation is that we are all different.
In some cases there are major differences.
What differences do you see in our congregation?
Now some people are threatened by differences.
They see differences as a weakness.
And unless everyone is the same they see we have a problem, a weakness and not ready for evangelism.
But what if we saw the differences in our congregation as gifts from God.
As different ways God speaks to people and blesses people.
Instead of ranking the differences in our congregation as what is closer to God and what is not
What if we see the differences as different ways people can relate to God and each other.
Now think about how that can impact our evangelising.
You may prefer a certain style of worship or certain style of small group.
But someone you know may not.
Someone God has put you into contact with may not.
With the differences in our congregation, you are able to direct people to the other options that are available.
That is the body of Christ at work.
And not surprisingly the passages regarding the Body of Christ
were also written to the Corinthians.
And as the Body of Christ we are called to complement each other,
And that means God has placed us amongst people with strengths we may not have
These are gift from God
And amongst people who can help us with our weakenesses.
And he has also placed us among people who need the strengths He has given us.
Recently I was watching the nascar racing on tv.
And one of the things that struck me was the appreciation that the driver and commentators had for a team.
When there was a problem it was the responsibility of the team to address the issue.
And when they won there was this recognition by the driver that he was not the team but part of the team.
It was the team that won the race.
Isn’t that what the church is about appreciating each other because each person in our congregation is a gift from God?
And isn’t therefore about helping each other with their weaknesses,
seeing each other as blessing from God.
And through the church, this congregation God is working through his people.
As a pastor I greatly value this.
There is some things I am ok at and some things I am not that good at.
But fortunately the pastor is not the church, the people are the church.
And in some of those areas where I am not so strong we have people who do have gifts.
One example of this is the wide range of people who provide care in our congregation.
Today in you pigeon holes you received a list of these people attached to the new position description for the Congregational Care Co-ordinator.
What a blessing it is to have such a diverse range of people who not only can care for others but are active in caring for others.
Many people have been blessed by people from our congregation who care on God’s behalf.
God has blessed us with a huge range of gifts in this area.
One of the other weaknesses that some people perceive is that we haven’t got it all right.
That we are not ready to evangelise until everything is in place.
Yes it is true we need to do some planning for the year of evangelism.
Yes we do need to do some preparation.
Yes we may need to make some improvements to our facilities, our structures and even our attitudes.
Part of that preparation will occur in Worship.
Part of the preparation will occur in monthly studies prepared by myself.
Part of the preparation may even occur in your small groups.
Think again about your weaknesses when it comes to evangelism?
What are they?
Will you seek God’s help?
Will you speak to me or another member of BCL about it so we can begin looking at ways that God can use the congregation to help you?
However the truth is also we are not God, we can’t see the future completely.
We will never have everything completely right.
One of the things a number of reformers did was highlight
that scripture shows we are all saints and sinners at the same time.
And with this in mind it is not surprising that everything will not be right.
And fortunately the good news is for God to work we don’t need to have everything right,
But we do need to trust Him.
Moses was effective for God because he trusted God.
David was effective for God because he trusted God.
The disciples were effective for God because they trusted God.
And in trusting God we are relying on His strength.
Especially to carry us through those times when we are not so sure, are uncertain.
To overcome what others may say is not possible.
And as disciples of Jesus Christ
God has placed people in our lives he calls us to touch with his love.
Who are the people you know?
Who are the people you see or talk to regularly?
These are the people God is calling you to bring His Good News to.
Now as you think of them,
you maybe wondering but I am not sure if they will respond to His Good News.
I am not sure if they would like our congregation.
Can I encourage you first to pray for them and that God gives you an opportunity to speak his Good News to them?
And constantly look for this opportunity.
Secondly don’t judge how people are going to react.
Listen to them, and speaks God’s truth to them, His truth of grace and forgiveness.
Help them see that God’s congregation is bigger than just one worship experience or some past experiences they have had with a church.
Help them to see that God is the God of grace.
The God who accepts them for who they are
and will help them in their life now but more importantly for their eternal life.
And interestingly the way God helps us can be varied,
In some instances he removes those difficulties from our lives.
And in others he allows them to remain, but gives us a different perspective of them
And how they can be used to show His power.
Some of you may have heard of Nick Vujicic.
Nick was born with no arms and no legs.
And for many people this would be devastating
However Nick doesn’t wallow in self pity or his problems
He allows God to use his life of no limbs to highlight God’s strength
To show people that they don’t have to be humanly perfect to be loved by God,
and to share God’s grace with others.
So today as we pray,
Bring your weakeness to Jesus
Asking him to help us to use our weaknesses to highlight God’s strength
This will prepare us for the year of evangelism
Because as St Paul says to the Philippians, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”
Amen
Probably a better questions to ask is,
are you ready to be part of the year of evangelism?
are you prepared to be involved in the year of evangelism?
All of us are called to be part of the year of evangelism.
All of us are called to be Jesus’ disciples involved in making disciples of all nations.
And so as you think about yourself and where you fit into next years picture of our congregation of being an evangelising congregation,
are you ready for this?
Now if we are to look ourselves alone,
or even our congregation
we can probably highlight a number of areas where we are inadequate.
This is not an unfamiliar story for people involved in God’s work.
Think about some of the significant biblical characters.
Moses initially resisted God’s call, saying he was not good enough.
David was seen as someone not worthy to fight Goliath
And look at the disciples Jesus chose
They included fishermen, tax collectors, who would pick them?
and even as disciples they had problems
John and James tried to secretly gain some extra power
Peter tried to get out of forgiving his brother.
And in today’s reading Paul highlights to the Corinthians and to us
that Yes he does have a weakness.
But rather than allow the weakness to stop him from participating in God’s work
Paul highlights that his weakness shows that God and God’s grace is essential.
You see Paul was addressing a congregation that had begun despising him.
And part of the reason was they were becoming interested in what they believed God could do for them right now.
They were interested in how they felt right now.
They were more interested in how God could bless them financially, materially and with a better life now.
Now it is true that God brings blessings to us today,
however these are not where we should put our focus.
God wants us to have the focus on the eternal life, the life with Him and others.
Unfortunately, the Corinthians had become more interested in following teachings that were not consistent with the God of the bible.
Teaching that encouraged them to highlight how good they were,
that put themselves first
rather than Jesus and his commandments of
“Loving God and loving others.”
And so Paul is now reminding them that although these teachings sound attractive,
they are not of God.
They are actually leading people away from God.
So what does this mean for us?
Well we all have weaknesses
All of us have things in our life that can make us feel inadequate.
We may even feel like God has deserted us at times.
Can you think of some of your weaknesses??
And what about when it comes to being part of evangelising congregation?
A Christian community who is at work bringing God’s grace to people.
What do you think your weaknesses are?
If we are honest, we can probably name a few.
There are two constructive things we can do with our weaknesses
First what if we allowed our weaknesses to become strengths for God.
The first reality as we look around at our congregation is that we are all different.
In some cases there are major differences.
What differences do you see in our congregation?
Now some people are threatened by differences.
They see differences as a weakness.
And unless everyone is the same they see we have a problem, a weakness and not ready for evangelism.
But what if we saw the differences in our congregation as gifts from God.
As different ways God speaks to people and blesses people.
Instead of ranking the differences in our congregation as what is closer to God and what is not
What if we see the differences as different ways people can relate to God and each other.
Now think about how that can impact our evangelising.
You may prefer a certain style of worship or certain style of small group.
But someone you know may not.
Someone God has put you into contact with may not.
With the differences in our congregation, you are able to direct people to the other options that are available.
That is the body of Christ at work.
And not surprisingly the passages regarding the Body of Christ
were also written to the Corinthians.
And as the Body of Christ we are called to complement each other,
And that means God has placed us amongst people with strengths we may not have
These are gift from God
And amongst people who can help us with our weakenesses.
And he has also placed us among people who need the strengths He has given us.
Recently I was watching the nascar racing on tv.
And one of the things that struck me was the appreciation that the driver and commentators had for a team.
When there was a problem it was the responsibility of the team to address the issue.
And when they won there was this recognition by the driver that he was not the team but part of the team.
It was the team that won the race.
Isn’t that what the church is about appreciating each other because each person in our congregation is a gift from God?
And isn’t therefore about helping each other with their weaknesses,
seeing each other as blessing from God.
And through the church, this congregation God is working through his people.
As a pastor I greatly value this.
There is some things I am ok at and some things I am not that good at.
But fortunately the pastor is not the church, the people are the church.
And in some of those areas where I am not so strong we have people who do have gifts.
One example of this is the wide range of people who provide care in our congregation.
Today in you pigeon holes you received a list of these people attached to the new position description for the Congregational Care Co-ordinator.
What a blessing it is to have such a diverse range of people who not only can care for others but are active in caring for others.
Many people have been blessed by people from our congregation who care on God’s behalf.
God has blessed us with a huge range of gifts in this area.
One of the other weaknesses that some people perceive is that we haven’t got it all right.
That we are not ready to evangelise until everything is in place.
Yes it is true we need to do some planning for the year of evangelism.
Yes we do need to do some preparation.
Yes we may need to make some improvements to our facilities, our structures and even our attitudes.
Part of that preparation will occur in Worship.
Part of the preparation will occur in monthly studies prepared by myself.
Part of the preparation may even occur in your small groups.
Think again about your weaknesses when it comes to evangelism?
What are they?
Will you seek God’s help?
Will you speak to me or another member of BCL about it so we can begin looking at ways that God can use the congregation to help you?
However the truth is also we are not God, we can’t see the future completely.
We will never have everything completely right.
One of the things a number of reformers did was highlight
that scripture shows we are all saints and sinners at the same time.
And with this in mind it is not surprising that everything will not be right.
And fortunately the good news is for God to work we don’t need to have everything right,
But we do need to trust Him.
Moses was effective for God because he trusted God.
David was effective for God because he trusted God.
The disciples were effective for God because they trusted God.
And in trusting God we are relying on His strength.
Especially to carry us through those times when we are not so sure, are uncertain.
To overcome what others may say is not possible.
And as disciples of Jesus Christ
God has placed people in our lives he calls us to touch with his love.
Who are the people you know?
Who are the people you see or talk to regularly?
These are the people God is calling you to bring His Good News to.
Now as you think of them,
you maybe wondering but I am not sure if they will respond to His Good News.
I am not sure if they would like our congregation.
Can I encourage you first to pray for them and that God gives you an opportunity to speak his Good News to them?
And constantly look for this opportunity.
Secondly don’t judge how people are going to react.
Listen to them, and speaks God’s truth to them, His truth of grace and forgiveness.
Help them see that God’s congregation is bigger than just one worship experience or some past experiences they have had with a church.
Help them to see that God is the God of grace.
The God who accepts them for who they are
and will help them in their life now but more importantly for their eternal life.
And interestingly the way God helps us can be varied,
In some instances he removes those difficulties from our lives.
And in others he allows them to remain, but gives us a different perspective of them
And how they can be used to show His power.
Some of you may have heard of Nick Vujicic.
Nick was born with no arms and no legs.
And for many people this would be devastating
However Nick doesn’t wallow in self pity or his problems
He allows God to use his life of no limbs to highlight God’s strength
To show people that they don’t have to be humanly perfect to be loved by God,
and to share God’s grace with others.
So today as we pray,
Bring your weakeness to Jesus
Asking him to help us to use our weaknesses to highlight God’s strength
This will prepare us for the year of evangelism
Because as St Paul says to the Philippians, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”
Amen
Thursday, July 2, 2009
The importance of being generous: 2 Cor. 6
When it comes to generosity,
who are the first people that come to mind?
Does the church come to mind?
Is the church the first thing you think of when you think of generosity?
In other words, are we generous people?
Well it’s a matter of perspective.
Some of us have been richly blessed by the generosity of people in this congregation.
There have been people who have offered to give up their time.
There are examples of people who have freely donated extra money for God’s mission.
Michelle tells me that she has received donations from people for her upcoming trip to Indonesia.
People have told me that they have come to church here and received anonymous donations in their pigeon hole when they have been going through a rough patch.
And when we read the letters from Australian Lutheran World Service we realize how generous people are in our church, donating money.
Even our donation of a toilet block from the school to the Pella church has been seen as a huge blessing by them.
And through our generosity together we have a designated person to co-ordinate care in this congregation
and we have a person to equip and encourage our small group leaders
People in this congregation bless others from time to time in many different ways, whether it be a meal, babysitting, some words of comfort, or anything else you can think of
If you have experienced these things then you would say
That there are times when this congregation is generous.
But there are also times when the church is not generous.
When we haven’t been generous.
Think about those times when a need has been placed before you
either as an individual or leader in the congregation
and you have avoided it.
Or when you have looked for the easiest and cheapest way to help someone rather than the most appropriate…
And at times we have to reexamine whether we are still being generous.
A few years ago a pastor told me the story of his congregation .
75 years ago this congregation began in a blue collar working class suburb.
They scraped together things.
They even offered coffee and tea after church.
However in recent years the area had changed.
There were now more European cars than Australian cars in the main shopping area.
And one day a young couple moved to the area and attended their church.
But what happened after the church caused them a problem.
You see after church they were served International Roast Coffee….
Not wanting to be seen as complainers they offered to buy a small coffee percolator,
To be told be the person responsible for coffee and teas
Ahh we don’t need that and beggars can’t be choosers if they are getting it for nothing they shouldn’t complain.
Some people think that when it comes to money at church that we are actually doing a good job when we discover new ways on how not to spend money…
They think that is stewardship…
That maybe worldly stewardship….
but biblical stewardship is using the money, the time and the talents God has given so as to share the Gospel with others.
Who here believes that we are called to reveal God to others?
Well being generous reveals God’s grace to others.
And therefore from the bible’s perspective being generous is an essential part to being a Christian.
It reveals who God is.
Being generous is part of being spiritual.
If you think you are a spiritual person,
then you also need to be a generous person.
Listen to this from 2 Corinthians 8 verse 7
7 But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
Now for some people this comes naturally.
My father is one of those…
Although he never had a lot of money…
He always was willing to help.
Some people have the gift of naturally being generous..
If you are one of these people I thank God for you.
If you are not
If you are someone who hears about a problem or sees someone in need and thinks do I really have to help.
Or surely the government should be looking after that
or who can I pass this onto
or how can I get out of helping
or I really have to look after myself
then it means you need to be more intentional about being generous.
Being generous is one aspect of Christianity.
Now you maybe thinking
Doesn’t Pastor Richard know the current state of the world financial situation?
The answer to that is yes…
And if you are suffering and life is difficult then come and see us…
But also because of our current financial situation.
Today’s bible reading from 2 Corinthians chapter 8 is even more applicable to us…
To give you the picture…
Paul is writing to the Corinthians church who had made an offer to help the Jerusalem church some months earlier
They had not come through with this offer…
Partly because the economic situation had changed….
You see the Economic situation was not good….
there was a drought
business was down….
This was true…
However the Corinthians had used the worldly situation as an excuse not to give.
They tried to cover up their love of money,
by blaming their lack of giving on the world situation.
And to highlight this Paul draws their attention to the church in Macedonia…
Whilst things were not so good in Corinth….they were terrible in Macedonia
And yet in numerous places in scriptures the Macedonian churches gave above their weight
Listen to verses 1 to 4 of chapter 8
And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.
Even though the Macedonians were under trial
and had extreme poverty,
They had overflowing joy and were generous.
Have you ever met anyone like that.
That even though life is tough they continue being generous.
One thanksgiving Sunday in Tasmania I was humbled by the Liberian refugees who joined our congregation,
Whilst I brought along two tins of Campbells soup, thinking I was doing something special.
These people with little money but a great deal of thankfulness brought along shopping bags full of groceries,
Plus an additional envelope of money for our church budget that had fallen behind.
They out gave most of the Aussies by far…
And when I talked them, it was because of two main reasons.
One they were so thankful to God for what he had done for them and will do for them,
And secondly they believed in reflecting God’s generosity.
And so there are two things that are required for us to be overflowing with joy and to be generous when times are tough.
First is that Jesus is our only God….
and therefore money, time or your skills are not.
In otherwords we don’t worship money as our god…
but we worship our God with money, time and talents!!
Secondly
We have a different perspective of what we have
We see what we have as not ours but Gods
And God has simply entrusted it to us to use whatever is in our possession to bring his love to others.
To reflect that He is a generous God.
A challenge for you this week.
Look at everything you own and ask yourself,
better still pray about
How does God want me to use:
the house he has given me,
the holidays I have
the money I have
the car I have
the relationships I have
in fact anything I have to share His love
How can I be generous with it so others can benefit and experience His love?
What God has given us is what God calls us to use to share His love.
Listen to verse 12
12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.
God doesn’t call us to give beyond what we have but to give what we have
As you pray about this there are three things to keep in mind.
God through St Paul highlights that are three recipients of our generosity:
The Lord, as thanks for what he has done for us
The Church Community,
so that together we receive His love and we share His love
and other people, so that they experience God’s love
In other words be generous to God, to fellow Christians and to other people.
Not one or the other but all three.
Now the basis of all our generosity is God.
In us being generous we reflect who God is
Listen to verse 9
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
We are generous not so God will be generous for us,
but because He is generous to us.
God is constantly giving us…
He is not stingy on how he gives
Heaven is not just a safe place….away from hell
Unfortunately, that is how many people view it.
But listen to what heaven will be like
From Revelation 21 we hear
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea…
16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia a in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits b thick, c by man’s measurement, which the angel was using. 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. d 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
That is what God has prepared for you and me…
Jesus gave up His life so you could have this.
Do you believe God is generous?
The truth is how we use money, our time and skills reflects what we believe
In Matthew 6:21 Jesus says to us where your treasure that is where your heart is also.
If you believe God is generous then we should be generous…
Generous with what we have
Generosity is not just a nice thing to do….
It is in fact the Gospel at work.
Generosity is dropping God into the lives of others.
Remember everyone is valuable in God’s eyes.
People matter to God and therefore people should matter to us.
Generosity is love in action
This week everyone you meet
And I mean everyone
see them as someone valuable to God
And see them as someone God is calling you to be generous to with what He has given you.
We don’t give because someone deserves it
but so the Gospel can be shared….
And generosity that is linked to the Gospel changes lives
A friend of mine who is now a Pastor grew up in a non Christian family.
This family found themselves in a difficult situation.
The father had left home and took some of the furniture.
Their mother out of desperation went to the local church,
Which happened to be Lutheran.
There they were helped not only with some food, but when the pastor brought food to the house he noticed they had no kitchen table.
He happened to mention this to one of the elders who cleaned up a table they had in the shed and gave it to the family.
As a result of this generosity they became more interested in God,
And now not only is he a pastor,
But his sister is a teacher in the Lutheran school system and worships regularly.
And his mother worships regularly
Generosity is the Gospel at work,
It leads others to know the love of Jesus
Amen
who are the first people that come to mind?
Does the church come to mind?
Is the church the first thing you think of when you think of generosity?
In other words, are we generous people?
Well it’s a matter of perspective.
Some of us have been richly blessed by the generosity of people in this congregation.
There have been people who have offered to give up their time.
There are examples of people who have freely donated extra money for God’s mission.
Michelle tells me that she has received donations from people for her upcoming trip to Indonesia.
People have told me that they have come to church here and received anonymous donations in their pigeon hole when they have been going through a rough patch.
And when we read the letters from Australian Lutheran World Service we realize how generous people are in our church, donating money.
Even our donation of a toilet block from the school to the Pella church has been seen as a huge blessing by them.
And through our generosity together we have a designated person to co-ordinate care in this congregation
and we have a person to equip and encourage our small group leaders
People in this congregation bless others from time to time in many different ways, whether it be a meal, babysitting, some words of comfort, or anything else you can think of
If you have experienced these things then you would say
That there are times when this congregation is generous.
But there are also times when the church is not generous.
When we haven’t been generous.
Think about those times when a need has been placed before you
either as an individual or leader in the congregation
and you have avoided it.
Or when you have looked for the easiest and cheapest way to help someone rather than the most appropriate…
And at times we have to reexamine whether we are still being generous.
A few years ago a pastor told me the story of his congregation .
75 years ago this congregation began in a blue collar working class suburb.
They scraped together things.
They even offered coffee and tea after church.
However in recent years the area had changed.
There were now more European cars than Australian cars in the main shopping area.
And one day a young couple moved to the area and attended their church.
But what happened after the church caused them a problem.
You see after church they were served International Roast Coffee….
Not wanting to be seen as complainers they offered to buy a small coffee percolator,
To be told be the person responsible for coffee and teas
Ahh we don’t need that and beggars can’t be choosers if they are getting it for nothing they shouldn’t complain.
Some people think that when it comes to money at church that we are actually doing a good job when we discover new ways on how not to spend money…
They think that is stewardship…
That maybe worldly stewardship….
but biblical stewardship is using the money, the time and the talents God has given so as to share the Gospel with others.
Who here believes that we are called to reveal God to others?
Well being generous reveals God’s grace to others.
And therefore from the bible’s perspective being generous is an essential part to being a Christian.
It reveals who God is.
Being generous is part of being spiritual.
If you think you are a spiritual person,
then you also need to be a generous person.
Listen to this from 2 Corinthians 8 verse 7
7 But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
Now for some people this comes naturally.
My father is one of those…
Although he never had a lot of money…
He always was willing to help.
Some people have the gift of naturally being generous..
If you are one of these people I thank God for you.
If you are not
If you are someone who hears about a problem or sees someone in need and thinks do I really have to help.
Or surely the government should be looking after that
or who can I pass this onto
or how can I get out of helping
or I really have to look after myself
then it means you need to be more intentional about being generous.
Being generous is one aspect of Christianity.
Now you maybe thinking
Doesn’t Pastor Richard know the current state of the world financial situation?
The answer to that is yes…
And if you are suffering and life is difficult then come and see us…
But also because of our current financial situation.
Today’s bible reading from 2 Corinthians chapter 8 is even more applicable to us…
To give you the picture…
Paul is writing to the Corinthians church who had made an offer to help the Jerusalem church some months earlier
They had not come through with this offer…
Partly because the economic situation had changed….
You see the Economic situation was not good….
there was a drought
business was down….
This was true…
However the Corinthians had used the worldly situation as an excuse not to give.
They tried to cover up their love of money,
by blaming their lack of giving on the world situation.
And to highlight this Paul draws their attention to the church in Macedonia…
Whilst things were not so good in Corinth….they were terrible in Macedonia
And yet in numerous places in scriptures the Macedonian churches gave above their weight
Listen to verses 1 to 4 of chapter 8
And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.
Even though the Macedonians were under trial
and had extreme poverty,
They had overflowing joy and were generous.
Have you ever met anyone like that.
That even though life is tough they continue being generous.
One thanksgiving Sunday in Tasmania I was humbled by the Liberian refugees who joined our congregation,
Whilst I brought along two tins of Campbells soup, thinking I was doing something special.
These people with little money but a great deal of thankfulness brought along shopping bags full of groceries,
Plus an additional envelope of money for our church budget that had fallen behind.
They out gave most of the Aussies by far…
And when I talked them, it was because of two main reasons.
One they were so thankful to God for what he had done for them and will do for them,
And secondly they believed in reflecting God’s generosity.
And so there are two things that are required for us to be overflowing with joy and to be generous when times are tough.
First is that Jesus is our only God….
and therefore money, time or your skills are not.
In otherwords we don’t worship money as our god…
but we worship our God with money, time and talents!!
Secondly
We have a different perspective of what we have
We see what we have as not ours but Gods
And God has simply entrusted it to us to use whatever is in our possession to bring his love to others.
To reflect that He is a generous God.
A challenge for you this week.
Look at everything you own and ask yourself,
better still pray about
How does God want me to use:
the house he has given me,
the holidays I have
the money I have
the car I have
the relationships I have
in fact anything I have to share His love
How can I be generous with it so others can benefit and experience His love?
What God has given us is what God calls us to use to share His love.
Listen to verse 12
12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.
God doesn’t call us to give beyond what we have but to give what we have
As you pray about this there are three things to keep in mind.
God through St Paul highlights that are three recipients of our generosity:
The Lord, as thanks for what he has done for us
The Church Community,
so that together we receive His love and we share His love
and other people, so that they experience God’s love
In other words be generous to God, to fellow Christians and to other people.
Not one or the other but all three.
Now the basis of all our generosity is God.
In us being generous we reflect who God is
Listen to verse 9
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
We are generous not so God will be generous for us,
but because He is generous to us.
God is constantly giving us…
He is not stingy on how he gives
Heaven is not just a safe place….away from hell
Unfortunately, that is how many people view it.
But listen to what heaven will be like
From Revelation 21 we hear
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea…
16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia a in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits b thick, c by man’s measurement, which the angel was using. 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. d 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
That is what God has prepared for you and me…
Jesus gave up His life so you could have this.
Do you believe God is generous?
The truth is how we use money, our time and skills reflects what we believe
In Matthew 6:21 Jesus says to us where your treasure that is where your heart is also.
If you believe God is generous then we should be generous…
Generous with what we have
Generosity is not just a nice thing to do….
It is in fact the Gospel at work.
Generosity is dropping God into the lives of others.
Remember everyone is valuable in God’s eyes.
People matter to God and therefore people should matter to us.
Generosity is love in action
This week everyone you meet
And I mean everyone
see them as someone valuable to God
And see them as someone God is calling you to be generous to with what He has given you.
We don’t give because someone deserves it
but so the Gospel can be shared….
And generosity that is linked to the Gospel changes lives
A friend of mine who is now a Pastor grew up in a non Christian family.
This family found themselves in a difficult situation.
The father had left home and took some of the furniture.
Their mother out of desperation went to the local church,
Which happened to be Lutheran.
There they were helped not only with some food, but when the pastor brought food to the house he noticed they had no kitchen table.
He happened to mention this to one of the elders who cleaned up a table they had in the shed and gave it to the family.
As a result of this generosity they became more interested in God,
And now not only is he a pastor,
But his sister is a teacher in the Lutheran school system and worships regularly.
And his mother worships regularly
Generosity is the Gospel at work,
It leads others to know the love of Jesus
Amen
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