On Sunday Nov 18th we will be offering our stewardship commitments for 2008. Forms for both Time & Talent Living Sacrifices and for Treasure Proportionate Giving will be in the bulletin on Nov 11th & 18th. Both forms can be printed from this web site using the buttons below. Please prayerfully consider what God is calling you to do in response to His grace and promises, fill out the forms, and place them in the offering baskets at our worship service on Nov 18th. If you prefer, the Time & Talent Form may be filled out & submitted On-Line using the appropriate button below. Click here to submit any questions you might have concerning either of these forms.
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Is Stewardship Law or Gospel?
June 3, 2007
Stewardship is managing what is entrusted to us. The LCMS common definition states, “Christian stewardship is the free and joyous activity of the child of God and God’s family, the church, in managing all of life’s resources for God’s purposes.” That can be seen as LAW – what God expects of us. Is it by OUR works that we live as good stewards?
Consider Paul’s message to the Galatians, “You foolish Galatians! Who has
bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was portrayed as crucified. I
would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by
observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After
beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human
effort?” (Gal 3:1-3)
Stewardship falls in
the area of Sanctification, not Salvation. That is, we do it as children
of God to give God glory, not in any way to obtain the status of being
children of God. Just as we confess about becoming children of God that we
cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, or come
to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called us by the Gospel, enlightened us with His
gifts; we also confess that the Holy Spirit is the One who enables us to live
holy lives as children of God.
The Holy Spirit does this by keeping us with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.
Jesus exhorted us to remain in Him as branches remain in the vine. (John 15:1-8)
Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing (5b), but connected to Jesus we bear much
fruit! (5a). This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing
yourselves to be my disciples. (8)
We are faithful stewards when we trust and obey God, relying wholly on His power
to be manifest in us. That is GOSPEL, good news of God’s grace that we receive
by faith.
Roger Lieske,
Deacon of Stewardship
We have
all seen the bumper sticker that say “Honk if you love Jesus” Recently I saw
another bumper sticker that said “Tithe if you love Jesus … Anyone can honk”
I started tithing about the time I met Mary and we spoke of getting married.
This was a decision we made together. We have been blessed by having families
that brought us up in the Christian faith – specifically Lutheran. We both have
parents that are, and have been great examples of faith in action.
To some, tithing does not seem like an option today. All I can ask, is that you
trust the Lord and try for the upcoming 10 weeks
Let me tell you how God has been working in my life.
Within 8 months of getting married, Mary and I decided I would take a new job in
NH. We decided that if we were going to relocate, that would be the time to
commit to live on one salary
Two years later, the company I was working for was bought out by another
company, and I was not offered a position. God provided a position with another
company in the same business. This position was at a lower pay, but within the
first 12-18 months an outside sales position was offered at a similar salary as
the previous employer. Once again God was taking care of us.
At one point, Mary recalls doing the finances, and not being sure how we would
possibly make our finances meet our expenses. We came to an obvious point where
we needed to make a decision as to whether we would continue to tithe, or if we
should pay our bills first, and then see how much we could contribute. We
decided to tithe, and trust that God would be faithful. Amazingly, that week,
Mary’s Grandmother decided to give each of her grandchildren a gift!! We were
awestruck at God’s faithfulness, and our trust grew.
A couple of years later we bought our first house – A two family rental property
with tenants. This was not our dream home, but we lived on the first floor, and
rented the second floor to help pay the mortgage.
We were able to fix up and improve the home so that when it was time
to relocate again, we had about a 35-40% gain in property value with a
guaranteed buyout amount.
Decided to take job promotion back to Baltimore/Washington area to be closer to
family
Relocation
was fully covered by employer.
In 1996 we moved to the
Baltimore area and we were able to buy a HUGE 3 bedroom house Mary thought it
was a mansion after living in the 4 room apt of our previous house.
In May 2002, I learned that I would be going through a job elimination with my
previous employer. Part of the package was 10 weeks of severance pay and 4 weeks
of unused vacation. This money was paid out in a lump sum. Once again we had the
opportunity to tithe on this payment. It would have been very easy to justify
putting all of this money in savings and holding back the tithe, after all, we
did not know when the next paycheck would come. But we trusted in the Lord, and
knew that he would provide for the family.
Once again, God had provisions in place for this purpose. I
believe he was just waiting to see how we would handle this situation, and
whether we would trust Him to provide.
I was able to donate a kidney on March 21, 2005. As we were going through the
testing process, and it was becoming apparent that I might be a compatible
donor, Mary and I discussed the financial impact of this decision. It was
projected that I could be out of work for up to 3 months, and being in a
commission only job, this would have major implications. Through these
discussions with my wife, we determined that our decision to proceed would not
be influenced by finances. If God brought us to this point, wouldn’t He surely
bring us through this also? Wow, were we ever surprised by the results! Plenty
of funds came in to provide for lost income and uncovered medical expenses. It
reinforced to me the bible verse in
Malachi
3: 10
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be
food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will
not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you
will not have room enough for it.
So you can see we
have been through:
Cut in pay and money still stretches to cover bills
Not enough money to cover expenses and God provides a gift
Job loss followed by a new position and maybe a severance package
from old job
Home sale with enough profit to cover housing cost for a larger home
Income replacement when unable to work
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your
own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your
paths straight.
More than financial
benefits, tithing has increased our trust and faith. Selfishly, we still find
ourselves wanting more…a bigger house, now that we have been blessed with 6
children, a vehicle with enough seats to fit the whole family. It would be easy
for others to say that we should be saving our money for ourselves. However,
through the faith that has been given to us we have seen that He will keep us
through situations that LOOK to us to be impossible, we are able to trust
that when God wants us to have these things, HE will provide them. Hasn’t He
done so much already with what we would have thought is a very small amount?
Faith involves knowing that when you “step out of the boat” to do what God
commands, He will be faithful to keep his promises. But you can’t really know
without stepping out…Join me in stepping out.
Redeemer Lutheran
Church - 20440 Downes Road - Parkton, MD 21120 - Phone
410-343-1665 - Email: info@redeemerparkton.com
Pastor: Rev.
James Banach Secretary:
Sue Lieske Webmaster:
John
Wachter
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