Stewards and Giants
Stewardship • Sermon • Submitted
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Stewardship and Giants
Stewardship and Giants
People are different aren’t they? My wife and I on Money.
Shiny pebbles vs. Pterodactyl eggs!
There are different people here in the church too! Watch this...
Some people Would rather stay in a place where everything is familiar, and they know all the people, and yet still others would rather up and move to somewhere new, where they know nobody, and have to start over from scratch.
If you want to stay put because you are established and comfortable, you have history hear, because there is nothing wrong with this place, and besides if you left nobody would know where anything was or where anything goes, raise your hand.
God Bless you, The Lord needs and uses people like you in His Kingdom. Let me affirm you, You are the trusty worker the steady servant those that keep everything in line and you maintain the status quo.
Now If you are that reckless zealot that said WOOHOO New place, Lets go! Start the car! Maybe You are the person that shows up to work on a project and goes to Lowe’s three times to buy tools you already own because you forgot to bring them with you in all your excitement! All you know is SOMETHING is GETTING DONE!
God bless you, and all your crazy energy and enthusiasm. The Lord needs and uses people like you in His Kingdom. Let me affirm you, You are the bold ones, the evangelists the ones that readily step forward to go out into the world.
So we planted a church...
There are three types of people in the world—those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder, “What just happened?” God only promises to bless the first type, those who make things happen.
God created you to do something. Do it. If you sense God is in something, pursue it. Put it in gear and go for it. Act. Move. Reach. Do something.
A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.
Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
Goliath (9ft 9inches tall, wearing 125 lbs of armor, blaspheming the Israelites’ God and defying their army, looking for one true adversary.
The story then zeros in on David and everyone knows he slays the giant with nothing more than a sling and a stone. But lets focus on a portion that I think is notable....
The New International Version Chapter 17
12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was very old. 13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.
16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.
17 Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah w of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. 19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.”
20 Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed
Jesse recognizes that we don’t just have a God of the past, but that we have a God of the here and now. He had already given his 3 eldest sons, He had already done his time as a young man, Jesse recognizes he is here for a reason, this reason and purpose is timeless, like the creator that ordains Him for this work.
Jesse is a stay put guy, but he realizes God needs movers and doers. Jesse realized his wealth wasn’t his own, his kids weren’t his own, but he also realized the mission at hand wasn’t separate from him. Jesse still had something to give to see God’s will be done.
God calls us into an active faith. We are called to be people of action.
God loves the urban poor, the lonely, the homeless, the forgotten, the gays and lesbians, the prostitutes, and the alcoholics of the inner city. Among the tattoo parlors, vulgar gift shops, tiny art galleries, and in trendy restaurants staffed with gay waiters, Ken believes God is waiting to bust out in the now.
David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,
“Praise be to you, Lord,
the God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.
Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.
Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name.
“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. Lord, the God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep these desires and thoughts in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you. And give my son Solomon the wholehearted devotion to keep your commands, statutes and decrees and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided.”
Then David said to the whole assembly, “Praise the Lord your God.” So they all praised the Lord, the God of their fathers; they bowed down, prostrating themselves before the Lord and the king.
Past success is often the cause of failing to experience God in the present. We try to hold on to what we already have and miss what could be. God exists in the moment. He lives in the here, the now. Theologians will tell you that God lives outside the realm of space and time. He does not exist in the past or future but as a never-ending present. If we want to experience God, we must embrace the opportunities of the now.
So what opportunities exist today for the church, and what does the church have to do to meet them?
God loves the urban poor, the lonely, the homeless, the forgotten, the gays and lesbians, the prostitutes, and the alcoholics of the inner city. Among the tattoo parlors, vulgar gift shops, tiny art galleries, and in trendy restaurants staffed with gay waiters, we the church need to believe God is waiting to bust out in the now.
The local church exists to spread the love of Christ to all people. The church is less about the architecture, and more about the relationships. The church can no longer rest on the laurels of its image within the community. Gone are the days where the church steeple was a beacon of love and peace to a community of people who at their core longed to be more like Christ. Gone are the days where communities accepted their creator and his righteousness and authority over their lives. As such the local church is fighting for its identity and its relevance. People today are more “progressive” and the church is seen as archaic, immovable, and arrogant. Our country was founded on major topics of inclusivity and tolerance, namely immigration and religious freedom. Today’s local church has the monopoly on being countercultural to modern causes, and has become a monolith with all the close mindedness and agility towards change of any body that has aged for thousands of years. Younger generations are recognizing too well the chasm that divides movements like black lives matter and LGBTQ rights from archaic ideologies like slave trade, homophobia, and xenophobia. The church is rapidly approaching being lumped into those older ideas. The steeple and church bells no longer set the hours of the day, the pews are seen as rigid and uninviting, and the stained glass is less seen as ornate and more so as a time capsule to people on the wrong side of history. The church doesn’t need resuscitation it needs resurrection. The Son of God willingly became vulnerable in the time and space of human history. For this reason, we need to be vulnerable and grounded in ideas of inclusivity and grace. We need to acknowledge and own our history, both its successes and failures, but recognize it as history. The church has made quite a name for itself for calling out sin and calling out sinners. We seem to put that focus over restoring others to Jesus. The church has to change its image from being a place of judgment and hypocrisy into being a place of love, grace and peace. This begins with the acceptance of all people from all walks of life, who are wrapped up in all sorts of sin. The church needs to embrace the fact that if everyone on the inside looks the same and already knows Jesus, the church is dying
SO WHAT?
The mission of the church is not to pay homage to its own past successes. The mission of the church is to love people. The Davids of the world will step out into this unknown, embrace it, and give of themselves all that they have. This is stewardship.
The Jesses of the world, your work isn’t done. Your job now is not to hold dear to everything you have built, and not to fold your arms and say I have done my time and given enough. Stewardship is continuing to serve with your all, send the Davids to their brothers, send them out to the leadership with reinforcements, send them out with encouragement, send them out to be agents of change. Pastor Phil started this series with the lesson of not growing weary of doing good.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
You have built this church, you have been a good steward of it, but the times are changing, and the Gospel stays the Gospel, the great commission stays the great commission. We are called to send out into the world, to be the love of Christ. This means the most important thing about this church, isn’t its carpet, isn’t its seats, or its windows. The most important thing about this church isn’t its memories, or its traditions. The MOST important thing about this church is its LOVE of people. And Jesus would come in and flip tables if we weren’t living this out, Jesus would rather tear down walls than not share the LOVE of God with people.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
A church is a body, and it doesn’t need resuscitation, it needs resurrection. This is why we don’t tell sinners the good news of Jesus so that they may go on sinning, NO we tell them the Good News of Jesus so they may be born again. Church, I bring you this word today because If the Old way is gone, ineffective, no longer reaching, then we accept those times have changed, and we answer the call to fight new Giants, and we offer, like Jesse, all that we have in service to the Lord. Stewardship is giving our all, our time, our talent, our money, our resources, all to the service of our Lord.
There are three types of people in the world—those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder, “What just happened?”
God only promises to bless the first type, those who make things happen.
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.