Text: Philippians 4:10-14 & Deuteronomy 8:11-18
Title: “Simple Stewardship: Simply Give”
Because we had such a great presentation from the Gideons, I’m going to keep this a little shorter than usual today…and probably quite a bit shorter than many “concluding sermons” for a stewardship drive. This would probably be the sermon where the pastor pulls out all the stops, pulls on every heartstrings, tells you to think about the children, and implies that an angel cries when you give anything less than 10% of your income to the church.
As fun as that may sound, this is “Simple Stewardship.”
We’ve been saying that stewardship could be simplified to some base concepts.
FIRST -- SIMPLY BELIEVE – Believe that we have a God who’s big enough to provide for you…and when you give, God will take care of you. God, the creator of the heavens and the earth will be with you if you nudge up your giving. Believing that you couldn’t possibly give more…for almost everybody…is a belief that God couldn’t possibly provide enough. Don’t sell him short.
SECOND -- SIMPLY SERVE – Our giving is an act of service. Because you give, we can have a food pantry, we can have someone to counsel those who have lost loved ones, we can have Vacation Bible School, and we can, “through our apportionments (our giving to the Alaska United Methodist Conference) be in mission and ministry around the world. When we give, we think beyond ourselves to others.
And, today, it’s SIMPLY GIVE.
But why?
Showing posts with label Simple Stewardship. Show all posts
"Simple Stewardship: Simply Give" -- Sermon for 14 November 2010
"Simple Stewardship: Simply Serve" -- Sermon for 7 November 2010
Title: “Simple Stewardship: Simply Serve”
A little over a month ago I went into the Alaska United Methodist Conference office with Sheila _______ (our money person) and Steve _______ (our “building” person). To meet with Dave _______ and Leila _______ (our Conference Leadership Persons). We met with them to talk about our church finances, which, the farther along we’ve been getting in our construction without actually occupying the building, the harder it’s been. And we knew that this year, as we were looking at what we’ve had on our plate to get heat and start worshipping over there, it was becoming more and more evident that our “income” wasn’t meeting up with out “outgo.”
And we’ve tried to be honest and forthcoming here. The longer we’ve had to wait for construction to finish, we’ve been paying bills for a building we’ve not been able to occupy. And we could see that it was going to get a little too close for comfort as we got to the second half of this year and into the beginning next year as we’ve had some large chunks of money due at one time while giving has gone down a bit.
