 |
||
| Date of Sermon: March 5, 2006 |
|
|
I was watching the last seconds of a basketball game the other night when it dawned on me; sports have the ability to convey spiritual truths that words alone cannot. Allow me to give you an example. Over 1,600 years ago there lived a wise man, St. John Chrysostom. He is known as one of the Early Church Fathers. He once wrote, “It is not possible that lust of wealth and righteousness should dwell together; they have their tents apart.” Chrysostom was trying to convey to his readers God’s economics, that they were given resources not to accumulate them, but to do something with them. It is a good point conveyed verbally 1,600 years ago. Good words. Four days ago a student from across the street named Acie Law IV had a basketball with seconds left to go in the game. The score was tied 43-43 between the 6 th ranked team in the nation from Austin and our hometown heroes, the Fightin’ Texas Aggies. Mr. Law had the ball for a reason – to do something with it. As the seconds were ticking off the clock, the crowd got restless, the team grew anxious. I watched it on the replay and was yelling at the TV. “You can’t hold it, you can’t hide it, you can’t hoard it. Do something with it. Shoot the ball, Acie!” And he did. Now with that picture in mind. Hear the word of the Lord from II Corinthians 9:8-15 on page 184 of your New Testament.
The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen. In this passage, Paul pointed out to the people in Corinth that God’s economics equipped them with enough to do God’s work. What would have happened Wednesday night if Acie Law would have yelled over to his mother, “Hey mom, I got the ball. Here, take it and put it on a shelf in my room.” And yet the Corinthians were at risk of doing that very thing with that which God had given to them for a reason… and we are at risk today. Sports have the ability to convey spiritual truths that words alone cannot. “You can’t hold it, you can’t hide it, you can’t hoard it. Do something with it. Shoot the ball!” And he did. And the Aggies won! God’s economics are the same way. We discover in this passage that three things happen when we return a portion of what God has given to us for his Kingdom work.
First , the giver grows spiritually . There is the sense of having enough and completing the course of God’s economics. Look at verse eight and all the “alls” in it, “a nd God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” We have been given blessings to do something with them and in so doing we grow. Philip Hughes wrote almost poetically, “Denial of self for the benefit of others enlarges the heart to receive a rich benison of contentedness and launches one into that limitless sea of grace where we learn experimentally that God does indeed supply every need of those who trust in him.” Aida Spencer said it a bit more succinctly, “We will never have enough unless we give it away.” We understood it more clearly Wednesday night. “Shoot the ball!” The giver grows spiritually with every gift.
The recipient gains help. Walls came down through the Corinthian gift. Most in Jerusalem were Jewish Christian, most in Corinth were Gentile Christians. But when generosity was expressed and needs were met, walls came down. I hope you have been able to see and hear how many lives you have touched through your gifts to this church and its ministries. Homes have been built, people have been fed, lives have been changed, hope has been restored, love has been felt. You have met people at their point of need. You have been blessed for a reason: to do something with it. Don’t hold it, hide it or hoard it. Do something with it. God gets glory when we give. Verse 11 reads, “You will be enriched in every way for your generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God.” This is the win that generosity accomplishes. God gets glory. When I was in college, I was broke almost always. It seemed like at just the right time Grandma Vee would send me a check. I would often tear up as I tore open the envelope, “God is able to provide you with every blessing.” I wrote letters of thanks to Grandma and told her how her gift came at just the right time. I would begin thanking God in my letter to her, which prompted her to thank God for using her to bless me. She kept those letters until the day she died and told me that she re-read them often, giving God glory. Last week, I told you about the devotion that Jerry Compton read at our staff meeting a while back. It was an article written about a small church collecting for a poor family. You remember, one family sacrificed significantly and in 1946 saved $70 for the effort only to discover that they were the poor family. The pastor handed the single mother an envelope with their $70 in it along with the $17 of contributions from the rest of the church. Now for the rest of the story: the teenage girls were so embarrassed that they never wanted to go back to church. Their mother was clear that that was not an option. The Sunday after Easter they walked to church in silence. A missionary from Africa was speaking about his ministry of building churches from sun-dried bricks. Then he stated that the roof was the costliest part of the project. It cost $100 to put a roof on a church in Africa in 1946. The pastor then asked, “Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people?” The three teenagers smiled and looked at their mother who was digging in her purse for an envelope with three new twenty-dollar bills, one crisp ten-dollar bill and seventeen crumpled one-dollar bills. She handed the envelope to her daughter beside her, who passed it to her sister next to her, who gave it to her sister at the end of the pew, who put it in the plate. Minutes later the pastor celebrated that they had collected just over $100. The missionary was amazed at such a large gift from such a small church and remarked, “You must have some rich people in your church.” That was the day that the Smith girls went from being the poor family in town, to being the rich members in church. God has blessed us for a reason – so that we might do something with it. We can’t hold it, hide it or hoard it. Do something with it. Shoot the ball. The rest of the story for the Corinthians is alluded to in Romans 15:26 where Paul reported to the Romans, “For Macedonia and Achaia (where Corinth is) have been pleased to share their resources with the saints at Jerusalem.” They did come through after all. What about the rest of the story for A&M UMC? We begin to answer that today. Three weeks ago I shared with you that the principle of the shortest stave. I stated that I had learned that a barrel is only as good as its shortest stave. We looked at II Corinthians 8:7 where Paul praised the Corinthians for virtues akin to that of this church (faith, speech, knowledge, eagerness and love) and then encouraged them to excel also in generosity. What’s the rest of our story? How long is our shortest stave? We answer that question today, even as we remember the indescribable gift of God mentioned in the last verse of II Corinthians 9. The gift that we celebrate at this table. You have been blessed for a reason: to do something with it. Don’t hold it, hide it or hoard it. Do something with it. Shoot the ball. Amen.
|
||
|
Return
to A&M UMC Main Page.
|
||
