Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost 10/21/12 Text: 1 Corinthians 16:1 Title: The Steward’s Identity Shapes Giving Today is the first week on the theme “Living each day as a steward”. The text for this morning’s sermon is 1 Corinthians 16:1 “Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.” I hope and pray that the message today titled “The Steward’s Identity Shapes Giving” as well as those messages you’ll hear over the next two Sundays, Sunday morning Bible studies, and daily devotions will help us become people who live each day as God wants to live. Unfortunately, some people feel uncomfortable during stewardship sermons. The reason they are uncomfortable is that they have misconceptions and misunderstandings and many times have been misdirected about what stewardship is all about. The see it as law, and being good Lutherans they often react negatively when stewardship is talked about. Another major misunderstanding that people have about stewardship is that they believe it deals strictly with money; or more precisely, the church’s lack of money and how it can get more. It is, as if the pastor is going to stand before them and say “I have good news and bad news. First the good news we have met our budget. Now the bad news, it is still in your wallets.” While it is most certainly true that some of stewardship is about money, it is not true that is all it’s about. As I speak to you today and the next two Sundays in my sermons and Bible studies, it is my hope and prayer that I can help you disconnect stewardship from the idea that it is only about the law and “paying the bills.” For the heart of stewardship is how you view your personal, relationship with Jesus. I am convinced that there is little in life that can help us grow in our relationship with Jesus more than good, solid, intentional Biblical teaching. Thus the goal of the stewardship ministry in our congregation is to help us grow in our relationship with Jesus through the use of the time, talents, and treasures that, and here is the key, that God has given to and thus entrusted each of us to use them for his glory. God has called and chosen us to be his stewards. God has placed us in the role and has given us our identity as his stewards. As stewards, we oversee or manage everything that the Lord has given us, which is everything that we are and have. Christian stewardship is then what you do after you have come to the understanding that you believe and are a disciple of Jesus. It’s total commitment. It’s faith in action. Saint Paul is giving instructions to the congregations of Corinth and Galatia concerning stewardship, specifically the stewardship of that portion of money to be used for the Lord’s work and that here in our text he is extending those instructions to the Corinthians, and in a very real way, to us. The question that comes up, sinful selfish people that we are is how do I determine how much of our time, abilities, and resources we are to give to the Lord for work in his kingdom? Saint Paul gives some information in a very precise way in the verse following our text. “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collection when I come.” Then in chapters 8 and 9 of his second letter to the Corinthians he expands on that verse starting at the very beginning, with the reason why we give, with what our motivation should be. St. Paul spends almost the entire chapter before our text sharing what Christ’s death and resurrection means to us: the fact that all Christians, you and I, will one day rise from death to new life. This is what motivates us to be concerned about the spiritual and physical well-being of others which will result in generous offerings of all we have. With changed hearts, our identity changes from being self-centered people to being God-centered. Our lives are lived out in a grateful response to Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are twice God’s. First, he made us, and then, by the holy precious blood of his only Son, Jesus, who shed his blood and life on the cross of Calvary, he bought us back again. The price has been paid and he has forgiven us all of our sins. He’s forgiven us for all the wrongs we’ve repented of, as well as those for which we haven’t repented; even those times when we are unforgiving. He’s given us a new identity: He calls us his children. That love of God which we see in that forgiveness is where Christian stewardship begins. With God’s love is connected the first of four basic principles of Christian stewardship; that we, with God’s help, give ourselves to the Lord. That we give Jesus the first and foremost place in our lives, that we make Him the focal point of our lives. Everything we are and do we do with eyes fixed on Him. We do that because of the second principle of Christian stewardship which is that we know the grace of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 8:9 Paul writes that we know, “that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.” We know the great love our heavenly father has for us by the very fact of our salvation brought about by his Son Jesus. So, if we give ourselves to the Lord because we know the grace of Christ, then we will recognize the third principle of Christian Stewardship; the needs of ministry in extending God’s Church and the needs of those around us, and we will willingly and cheerfully seek to meet those needs. That brings us to another reason for Christian stewardship; the promise of the blessing that comes with it. The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 9:7 writes: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Did you hear that? “God loves a cheerful giver.” When we give cheerfully, we give joy to our Heavenly Father as we display his image and likeness. The prophet Malachi 3:10 writes of that blessing almost as a challenge to us. “’Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. And thereby put Me to the test,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need’” I believe that’s a challenge to us. The Old Testament law was 10%. But that was the law. Christ fulfilled the requirements of that law for us, so now we give as the Lord has given to us, as we have prospered. We are no longer bound by the law, for the Gospel has given us a new identity. We live in his grace. We are his children, stewards of all he gives us we are, as Martin Luther once wrote, “we are Little christs” sharing God’s blessings with those around us, meeting needs as they exist; all according to his will! The more we give to meet those needs, the more God will bless us that we may give even more. Don’t believe so? Remember what I just read in in the God given words of the prophet Malachi, “Put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more.” What are we waiting for? Amen.