The New Deal with Sowing Matthew 6:24

For the last few weeks we have been talking about viewing stewardship in a new way - as our opportunity to decide how we want to partner with God in the sowing of the Kingdom message. Today we will get into the nuts and bolts of what that could look like, if we so choose.

There are very few people who go through life without some concern about finances along the way. Even those who have many financial resources still hit bumps in the road. The question we need to ask ourselves is if we are going to invite God into our finances at all time or only ask for God’s help when things do not go as planned.

At the church across the street from my parents house there is a sign that reads “Do you check the foundation before or after the storm?” The answer should be before, but many of us live our lives where we only check the foundation - if we are building our live on God’s love, presence, and word - when things go wrong. It is not uncommon for folks to claim that they will be more dedicated to God or more faithful in their church attendance or giving, if God would only bring them out of a horrible situation. Sadly, that is not a solid foundation and many return to old habits when life is made aright. 

How we treat finances is part of the foundation in our growing relationship with God. As the gospel of Matthew reminded us this morning - we cannot serve two masters - both God and wealth. Yet we seem to have bought into this cultural idea, that we can love both God and money. That its okay to keep God out of our financial decisions and situations. 

Because Matthew is talking about slaves relationships to masters, the image that is conjured up is that of stewardship. Slaves were stewards of their masters household, representing the needs and values of the master when he was away. It was not the slaves household to make their own decisions with - instead they were to make decision that reflected their master’s wishes, even in their absence. Pastor Andy Stanley states, “When we no longer enjoy managing our money, we shift our strategy and start focusing on how to persuade God to come to our rescue”. In other words, we don’t even see ourselves as managing what God has gifted us with. Instead we see it as ours to do with what we wish, until we make a wrong decision or something unexpected happens - then and only then - do we want God to intervene. 

The question is what keep us from asking God into every aspect of our lives, including our finances, before things go wrong? It is as if we fear that asking God into this private part of our life will result in a change - and it probably will. We fear not knowing what God may lead us to do, so we become irrational, trying to keep God out of this particular part of our lives. Or we make decisions about whether to trust God with issues around money or not based off of feeling. Here’s the thing - many of us wouldn’t buy a car without test driving it, just because we had a good feeling, or buy a stock because it feels right. Our theology around finances should not and cannot be dictated by our emotions.  In fact, its often hard to be generous when our emotions come in to play, especially when we are overwhelmed with concerns. Instead, we are asked to take a step of faith and put our emotions aside in order to put our finances to work for God’s interest. It needs to be a decision, not a feeling. For it is only after that we take this step of faith that we can begin to trust God in all areas of our lives and have our perspective about giving change.

So what does giving look like for God’s Kingdom? And what does God’s word have to say about how much to give or when or why. If we look back to the scripture we reflected upon last week from 2 Corinthians 9 (verse 7), Paul tells the Church to give what you have decided in your heart to give. Paul doesn’t make it about net vs. Gross income or a percentage or even a set amount. Instead he tells them to give from their heart. To intentionally think and pray about how much they are to give. 

However, that’s a bit hard for us to wrap our human minds around. Many of us feel like we need more leading, more prompting, a bit more of a plan then to give from the heart. So Pastor Stanley purposes the three ‘P’s of giving.

First, Priority Giving. The first check you write out of every pay check should be to the local church. Why the first? Because according to Stanley, “Whatever you place first with take precedence over everything that comes later”. This is what Jesus is trying to remind us of in this mornings scripture. The reason we cannot serve two masters, either intentionally or unintentionally, is because something will always have to win out and take priority in the end. If we choose the one we will hate the other. 

We all have priorities in our lives - with our time and schedules, with our money. With just about every aspect of our lives. If we make giving to God a priority then we are declaring that we trust God and everything else will be taken care of. If we wait to give what is left over, we are equally saying that we need to wait and see what we can give to God. Both stances reflect what we think about God and money, if we sit down and truly consider it. 

The second ‘P’ is percentage giving. Percentages help us remember that we are the stewards in today’s gospel message, not the masters. It also helps us keep perspective about the sowing. Part of the hiccup with percentage giving is that too many of us are living beyond our means. It is as if God hands us a dollar and we try to give God the dollar back, but God tells us that all that is desired is ten cents. We should be grateful, first and foremost for recognizing what a gift God has given us, what a responsibility God has entrusted us with. To have given us 90 percent of our resources to choose what to do with. However, some of us have a hard time even giving the ten percent back, because it seems like too much when we look at our check books instead of too little when we consider all that God has done in our lives. But even with the 90 percent, we are to make wise decisions that reflect God’s will as the master, not our sole desire as the steward.

The third ‘P’ is progressive giving. This means that we progressively increase the percentage of our giving over the years. As we grow more in love with God and align our will more towards that of Kingdom purposes, we should want to give more. We should intentionally choose to give more. Now I realize that this is scary. To think about giving even more than 10 percent. But what would it look like to prayerfully make the decision to increase your giving by one percent every two years? Trusting that God will use that for amazing things in the lives of those who need to hear the Gospel message? Or maybe you pray and find that you are to increase two percent every ten years. That is between you and God. The point is that we want to give more to God as we recognize more clearly what God has done for us. 

There is also a fourth ‘P’. Prompted giving. This is very frightening if we are making financial decisions off of feelings. Sometimes God will ask us to stretch out in faith and give more. This doesn’t mean we stop giving the first three ‘P’s to the local church - its not either/ or, its both/ and. Which often won’t make sense when we are looking strictly at the numbers, but is often when God is inviting us into the biggest opportunities for the Kingdom.

Over the next week I want to invite you to prayerfully consider which ‘P’ you need to start out with. Consider what God is leading you to give to the church in the coming year. Not to keep the lights on, but to expand the Kingdom. Not because we feel like we have to, but because we make the decision to do so. Then next week you will be invited to write this amount down as as covenant between you and God. No one else will see it. It is simply a reminder for each of us, to trust God, in all realms of our lives, including finances, for the sake of the message of Jesus, as we declare that he is our master, not money. Amen.