Rev. David Holwick D Church Covenant #3
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
January 29, 2006
Exodus 36:1-7
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Church Covenant: "To contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the
ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the
spread of the gospel through all nations."
I. Some pastors have all the luck.
Email I received on Thursday:
Dear Brother David:
I am giving my State of the Church address this Sunday.
Do you have a passage of Scripture that you would recommend
that I read?
At the end of the service we will burn the mortgage of our
Family Life center.
A special couple left us $400,000 dollars to do this.
I will show a picture of them on our 9 by 12 screen during the
burning.
Thank you,
Stanley Kilgore, Pastor
(North Gardendale Baptist Church, Alabama)
My response to Stanley:
Dear Stanley,
My own church is planning a $600,000 multi-purpose addition this
year.
If that dear couple has any money left over...
Stanley replied:
I forgot to mention that this couple also left an extra $200,000
to be used on our new worship center.
They were in their late 90s and no one knew they had that kind of
money.
Well, no one but myself.
It just shows that God has people who will take care of His
work....
Question for my congregation: Are any of you in your late 90s?
II. "The support of the ministry."
A. I am continuing my series on our church's covenant.
We come to a line that is in bold, one that you read in unison:
"To contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of
the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the
poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations."
B. It seems like it always boils down to money.
1) I guess there is no escaping it.
a) Money represents the use of material and time.
b) Sanctuaries require heat, pastors need food.
c) If we build, the structure won't pop up magically.
2) Finance committee met with a professional fund raiser.
a) Over his career, he raised $700 million.
b) He says you need to spend $17,000 on a preliminary
study.
c) Then you need to find a big politician to be the head
of fundraising program.
d) Then you contact grant agencies, community groups,
etc, etc.
3) We will do it a different way.
a) Few gimmicks, just an ancient principle: God's program
will be built by God's people.
b) Outsiders will not do it for us - we will do it
ourselves. If we won't, why should others?
c) We will do it methodically and consistently.
1> No 90-year-old is going to hand it to us.
III. How Moses built a sanctuary. Exodus 35-36
A. Israel was preparing to build a sanctuary to God.
1) It was in the form of a tent, but a very special one.
B. Moses laid the groundwork of how it would be done: 35:5
1) From what they already had, they would give offerings.
2) Offerings were limited to those who were willing.
3) They were to bring the finest materials, because it was
for God.
4) Those who were skilled were to donate their talents. 35:10
C. The results exceeded his expectations.
1) They brought the offerings morning after morning. 36:3
2) They brought in far more than was needed. 36:5
3) Moses had to stop them from giving more. 36:6
IV. How our covenant wants us to approach our commitments.
A. Emotionally.
1) Cheerfully and enthusiastically.
a) "God loves a cheerful giver," as the Apostle Paul said.
2) It must not be a drudgery or forced.
3) If you don't want to give, don't.
B. Regularly.
1) Christians have always emphasized systematic giving.
a) In 1 Corinthians, Paul instructs the church to take up
offerings on a regular basis, as people are enabled
to give.
b) "Crisis giving" can get big results, but people burn
out.
c) Consistent giving habits are always better.
C. Generously.
1) The Bible often correlates our generosity with the depth
of our love for God.
a) If we appreciate what God has done for us, we want
to give back to him.
2) Generosity is no guarantee of spirituality.
a) The Israelites gave generously and enthusiastically for
the production of the Golden Calf.
b) We must give generously, but wisely.
1> We don't have to build big for the sake of big.
2> Newsweek comment on bigness of American churches.
V. Our giving must be well-rounded.
A. Support of ministry.
1) West Lafayette Baptist stories of impoverished pastors.
2) Wide range: Rev. Lee Spitzer sharing about low wages of
ethnic pastors in our state.
a) Humbling.
B. Church expenses.
1) Utilities must be paid, and a thousand other things.
C. Charity for poor.
1) Deacons fund.
2) Ministries to the inner city.
D. Evangelism and missions.
1) Missions has always been a big undertaking, with big
expenses.
2) The rewards are also big.
VI. What our giving reveals.
A. We support what we really value.
1) Many illustration stories of cheap offerings. Example:
A family had just returned from church, and they were
sitting down to lunch, when Dad started complaining.
"No wonder the churches are half empty," he said.
"The choir this morning was painful.
And that woman who read the Bible, I couldn't hear
half of what she was saying.
But worst of all was that terrible sermon.
It was really awful!"
Suddenly he noticed his young son had a big grin on his
face.
"What are YOU grinning at?" he demanded.
"Well, Dad," said the boy, "I don't think you got too
bad a show for ten cents!"
#8315
Obviously this is a very dated sermon - cheapskates give at
least a dollar these days.
But the point is well taken - God's work should be a priority
and not an afterthought.
a) What does this reveal about our faith?
2) If believe in something that is bigger than we are, show it.
B. Having a real relationship with Jesus is key.
1) Never give out of guilt or to bargain with God.
2) Give because of the salvation he has given you.
VII. The provision is available.
Tony Campolo tells of being invited to speak at a ladies meeting.
There were 300 women there.
Before he spoke the president of the organization read a letter
from a missionary.
It was a very moving letter.
In the letter the missionary expressed a need for $4,000 to take
care of an emergency that had cropped up.
So the president of the organization said, "We need to pray that God
will provide the resources to meet the need of this missionary.
Bro. Campolo, will you please pray for us?"
Tony Campolo said, "No." He has always been rather outspoken.
Startled, she said, "I beg your pardon?"
He said, "No, I won't pray for that."
He went on: "I believe that God has already provided the resources
and that all we need to do is give.
Tell you what I'm going to do.
I'm going to step up to this table and give every bit of cash I
have in my pocket.
And if all of you will do the same thing, I think God has already
provided the resources."
The president of the organization chuckled a little bit and said,
"Well, I guess we get the point.
He is trying to teach us that we all need to give sacrificially."
He said, "No, that is not what I am trying to teach you.
I'm trying to teach you that God has already provided for this
missionary.
All we need to do is give it.
Here, I'm going to put down all of my money I have with me."
He wrote, "I only had $15 in my pocket so I wasn't too worried
about that."
So he put down his $15 and then looked at the president of the
organization.
Reluctantly, she opened her purse and took out all of her money,
which was about $40, and put it on the table.
One by one the rest of the ladies filed by and put their money
on the table, too.
When the money was counted they had collected more than $4,000."
Tony Campolo said, "Now, here's the lesson.
God always supplies for our needs, and he supplied for this
missionary, too.
The only problem was we were keeping it for ourselves.
NOW let's pray and thank God for His provision."
#30410
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 8315 "Not Bad For The Price," Fredericksburg Bible Illustrator
Supplements.
#30410 "He Wouldn't Pray, But He Would Give," Tony Campolo, adapted by
Melvin Newland, from Kerux Sermon #22082, "Can You Give Too
Much?" by Rev. Mark Hensley. After I finished the sermon
several members suggested that I should have challenged our
congregation to do the same! This would have raised
significant money but defeated the theme of the sermon:
regular, habitual giving is the key to church finances.
These and 25,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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