St. Paul Ev. Lutheran Church & School

St. Paul Ev. Lutheran Church & School

January 2011 Newsletter

7

How Much Should I Give?

In the last several weeks I have been asked this question more times than I would like to count; “How much should I give …. so we can keep the 7th and 8th Grades at our school?”

Think about that question for just a moment yourself. What does that question imply? It implies that the person asking the question believes that they can give more than they are currently giving in their weekly offerings to the Lord. They want me (or one of the Board members) to give them a specific number so they can give just the right amount; not too little or too much. “Pastor, I know I need to do my part.”

My answer to this question has been; “How would I know how much you should give. That is between you and God.” To those of you, who received this answer from me, please accept my apology for an incomplete answer. I will do my best to give you a better answer in this newsletter.

Here are some passages from Scripture:

You shall have no other gods before me. (Ex 20:3) [First Commandment]

Luther’s explanation to the First Commandment: We are to fear, love, and trust God above all things.

11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Eph 4:11-13)

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Co 8:9)

18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 21 Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” (Mt 8:18-22)

Jesus gave everything he had to his Father and to us; even his life! God expects us to do the same; to be just like Jesus―”attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” We are to devote 100% of our time, talents, and treasure to God; 100%! He has to be number one in our life. For someone or something to be number one in your life it has to be the sole focus of your life.

What does this mean for our everyday life? It means that we are to manage everything God has given us to carry out his will. So what does that mean for you? We are husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, business owners, bosses, workers, students, board members, etc., and all of us are member at St. Paul. God expects you to use everything you have to carry out this will (ministry). God expects us to give 100% of our time, talents, and treasure to him.

Do you think you that you do this perfectly? Absolutely not! I don’t either. So working to do this has to be a struggle every single day of our life. God wants 100%. Our sinful nature wants to give him nothing. Our spiritual nature wants to give God 100%. This is a battle that goes on in us every moment of our lives whether we realize it or not. We need to be aware of this battle so we can do a better job of giving 100% to God. Remember, God cares about our reason (motivation) for what we do. He cares that we struggle to give him 100%. We will fall short, but when we have this conscious struggle every day in our lives God says, "Well done good and faithful servant." Motivation and effort matter in God eyes. Remember God said through Paul;

7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Co 9:7)

Motivation is what pleases God because even our best works (good giving being one) are still covered with sin.

So how much of all the money God has given you should you specifically give to the church? Listen to what Paul says specifically about giving to the church:

On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. (1 Co 16:2)

It seem that the Corinthians had asked Paul about the relief collection that was being taken for the Christians in Jerusalem and Judea, who were in distress because their country had suffered periods of famine. Paul’s reply to the Corinthians gives directions for how to make the collection. His rely gives us instructions today for our congregational stewardship. Paul teaches us that our stewardship for funding ministry needs to include regular giving (“on the first day of every week”), planned giving (“saving it up”), individual giving (“each one of you”), and proportionate giving (“in keeping with his income”).

What is the right proportion for you to give to the church? Some people say if God required a tithe for his Old Testament (OT) people then that’s what we should give. Jesus set us free from the tithe (10%) and every other requirement of the OT covenant. I want to make a couple of more points about tithing. An argument can be made that if you survey the OT that the Jews gave much more than 10% to the Lord. One of my professors at the Seminary said it could have been as much as 40% if they followed all of God’s commands for giving. For us today a tithe could be too little to give to the Lord while for others it could be too much. That dear brothers and sisters is truly between you and the Lord.

I want to make just one more point about proportionate giving. Listen to these words of Jesus from his Sermon on the Mount;

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. … 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (Mt 6:19-21, 24)

Paul echoed these words to Timothy;

9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1 Ti 6:9-10)

Jesus also said;

24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mt 19:24)

Is there any one of us who can honestly say that we are not rich when we look at what we have as Americans? I think the only answer is, “No, we are rich.” However, possession of wealth even great wealth is no sin. The sin is worshiping our wealth. The pursuit of prosperity and the perpetuation of financial security can all too easily become our religion. The temptation to covet does not afflict only the rich. No matter how much or how little money we have, there is always a danger that money may become our god.

So, what is the right proportion for you to give to the church? As you struggle to answer this question look at all you’ve been given. Ask yourself if your vacation, internet, cable TV, digital TV, dinning out, sports your play, hobbies, pop/soda/coke (as we say in Texas), etc. is the proper way to use what God has given you. Yes, God wants you to relax and enjoy what he has given you. But do you think that God would say that these things are more important than continuing the ministry of our school? That too dear brothers and sisters is between you and God. I’ll give you one last quote from Scripture on this subject. It is from Job;

Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. (Job 1:21)

What is the legacy we will leave to the members of St. Paul when the Lord takes us to heaven? With the Lord’s help may it be of a people dedicated to saying thank you to God for what we have been given in Jesus. We, you and me, have been given the riches of heaven. Our God is awesome and he does awesome things for us!

WELS Q&A

Dear Saints, we are currently dealing (for over one year now) with a very difficult fellowship issue at MLHS. I believe it will be some time before everything is sorted out, but be assured that our District Presidium is using patience with God’s Word to steer us in the right direction. As this discussion continues it’s possible you may hear things about it from time-to-time. When you get bits and pieces of a conversation it’s difficult to understand the true nature of the issue. If you have questions please feel free to talk with me. I’ve been involved with this issue since the beginning.

What is listed below comes from our WELS’ Q&A. It’s a good review of our fellowship practice and touches on some of the issue we are dealing with at MLHS.

Question:

Why do WELS Lutherans choose to worship publicly only with other WELS Lutherans? Why not, in the spirit of unity, join in public worship with other denominations like Catholics or other Protestant groups? It can seem that WELS members are being elitist, or that they think they’re better than everyone else.

Answer:

Thank you for asking the question and giving us the opportunity to try to explain. Truthfully stated, we would like nothing more than to worship with any and all professing fellow Christians and to clearly express that "spirit of unity" you mention. To be able to do this would not only allow us (and the others) to affirm our unity in the Christian faith but also testify to the world how wonderful it is to be an active part of God's big family of believers.

But, obviously, there is more that has to be said. There are a lot of times we see people not doing what they would prefer to do. We see soldiers in battle not protecting their lives and personal safety by heading home. We see parents not going on cruises and not driving their dream cars while they struggle to get children through college. The point is that despite sincere desires that are real, there are often higher priorities involved, issues that keep us from simply doing what we wish we could do. And what would be the things that normally keep us from worshipping with other Christian denominations despite our wish that this could happen? Let me put it this way and then try to explain: Four kinds of love keep us from doing what we would otherwise do.

1. There is love for the very people we feel we cannot worship with. We believe that the majority of denominations and churches you mention are mixing Bible truth with falsehood. If anyone is willing to sit down and talk with us, we'd be happy to explain what we mean and what statements of the Bible are involved. Anyway, these churches might be compared with a friend who makes and begins to eat a sandwich that has good, nourishing meat in it—but also doses of poison. God's Word nourishes, but false teachings poison the soul and weaken spiritual life. If we find that the other people are ignorant or unaware of the errors in their churches, we would never avoid or refuse to encourage them or possibly even worship with them on occasion. And we would use these times together to point out what we love about their confession of the Christian faith and also point out what we consider to be errors or falsehoods they should avoid. But if these people have consciously or knowingly joined a church that tolerates error, then we must assume they are doing this purposely and we want to give a strong, consistent testimony against the error, the poison, found in that church. Our motive is to help and protect, and this desire is stronger than the desire to ignore errors or pretend everything is okay and go to church with them.

2. There is love for our Savior and Lord along with love for the truth of his Word. This is at the heart of what makes Christians who they are, of course. To confess the truth of our sinfulness and utter inability to save ourselves and to confess and rejoice in the truth of the saving work of Jesus Christ on our behalf lead us to hate all errors and falsehood. Love for truth and hatred of error always go together. Love for God and hatred of falsehood also go together. If, as said earlier, we are talking about people who knowingly and consciously tolerate religious error, we are called on to choose God and his truth over churches that bring errors and poisonous falsehood with them. Even when it hurts us emotionally or socially, or leads others to conclude we are "elitist" or think we are better than others. We are by no means better than others, but our God and his truth are. Our primary love for him and his truth override our desire to seek an external peace or superficial friendliness at the expense of truth. It's sort of like waking up a neighbor at two o'clock in the morning if we see his house is on fire. At first it appears to be rude and discourteous, even unloving. But when the danger is identified and clearly seen for what it is, then the action can be seen as loving and fitting. We hope people give us the chance to explain.

3. There is love for our fellow Christians who may be watching what we do and may not understand or may be led to stumble spiritually if we appear to be disregarding God's truth or tolerating error. For example, if I find myself invited to a another church by a friend who I am convinced is ignorant of the errors and dangers there, and I may be willing to attend that church with him as part of a teaching and encouragement effort, I might be doing what is okay and for the right reasons. But other Christians could so easily get the wrong idea. They might somehow think that staying away from error or giving a clear testimony against falsehood is no longer important. They might be led into error by what appears to them as a bad example. Yes, I could explain, but I run the risk of doing damage before I have the chance to explain. In love, sometimes we refrain from doing things that are permissible because they are not wise or helpful to others.