The Image of God (Genesis 1.26-2.3)

Introduction

An architect, a surgeon and an economist are discussing Creation. The surgeon says: “Look, we surgeons are most important. God’s a surgeon because the first thing he did was to extract Eve from Adam’s rib.” The architect says: “No, wait a minute, architects must be more important because they came before. God must be an architect, because before he had made Adam and Eve, he made the world in seven days out of chaos.” So the economist just smiles: “And who made the chaos?”

Interpreting Genesis 1-3 is challenging but these opening chapters of the Bible lay a vital theological foundation. They teach a worldview of God’s eternal sovereignty, man and woman’s created complementarity, humankind’s inevitable sinfulness and God’s holy resolve to judge and punish sin. All this is under fierce attack in our day by radical atheists, the gay lobby and secular humanists. That’s why we are focusing on these chapters – we are contending for the faith.

Who do you think you are? Sigmund Freud, the psychoanalyst, says you are a complex being, and the reason you do what you do is because you are motivated by repressed desires, most of which would be too embarrassing to voice publicly. Karl Marx, the political philosopher, says you are a social animal, inseparable from society, and you find meaning in your struggle against the oppression of capitalism and the opiate of religious belief.

Freud says that your basic, fundamental urge is your sex drive, your libido. Marx says it’s your aggression. So two of the three most influential thinkers of the last century (the other being Einstein) thought that our most primary impulses were for sex and aggression, and that defines what we are.

Marx’s thinking gave birth to communism, which was, and is, an atheistic ideology. Communists (if there are still any left in the world) don’t believe in Adam and Eve. They laugh at readings like the one we had this morning. But paradoxically, Adam and Eve could have been the first Communists. They had no house, no clothes, no car; they worked for nothing and thought they were in Paradise!

But, seriously, who do you think you are? You’ve probably read those things which break us down to our assorted component parts; the average human body comprises enough fat to make seven bars of soap, enough iron to make a medium sized nail, enough potassium to explode a toy cannon, enough lime to whitewash a chicken coop, enough sugar to fill a jam jar, and enough sulphur to rid a dog of fleas.

Your body is amazing. (Preachers can only say that when carefully avoiding eye contact with the good-looking women in the congregation!) But it’s true for all of us. Every day your mouth produces about one litre of saliva, your heart pumps about 30,000 litres of blood and each foot exudes half a pint of sweat. You have approximately 4,000 wax glands in each ear and if it weren’t for the mucous that lines the walls of your gut, your stomach would probably digest itself. Your body is truly amazing.

What about God? Who does he think we are? What has he got to say about the human condition? Quite a lot. And the short passage we read just now is a particularly rich seam.

1) Part of the Created World

First of all, coming straight after the description of God’s creating and ordering of the natural world, and written in the same vein, these verses tell us that we are part of the created universe. Just like the rest of the natural world, we are fashioned by God and we owe our existence to his autonomous, sovereign decision to bring us into being. It’s an obvious point really, you’d expect the Bible to say exactly that. You and I are here by intelligent design, not by random accident. We are part of the created world, but not just part of the created world.

2) Distinct from the rest of Creation

Genesis 1 states that have a place of honour in God’s grand design. We are special, indeed unique. We are the last species God makes, bringing a kind of closure to his creative work. Genesis 1 tells us that we are, in some ways, quite unlike anything else in creation. Up to now, God has majestically called things into existence; earth, sky, oceans, stars, planets, plants, fish, birds, beasts. God speaks from his royal throne and it happens. But when it comes to making us, God fashions each of us, like a potter shapes a lump of clay, into an only-one-of-its-kind masterpiece. Tellingly, when God creates men and women he doesn’t say “let there be human beings”, like he has done for everything else he has made. He doesn’t say “let there be” at all this time, in v26, he says, “let us make…” And accordingly, instead of assessing what he made as ‘good’ as he has for every other created work, God seems to place a higher value on making us, describing our coming into existence as “very good.”

Having made man and woman, God congratulates himself and rejoices at having made something exceptionally admirable and innovative. God, the great artist, looks at what he has in his hand with a particular pride. He smiles with satisfaction because Adam, Eve and all their descendants reflect back the beauty, the imagination, the subtlety, the genius of their Creator in a way that nothing else does. God wants you to know from these Scriptures that he takes unusual delight in those who are fashioned in his image and likeness - you and I. All the pleasure that God has in the rest of his works; open seas, vast mountain ranges, majestic savannas, pulsating tropical forests, wild beasts that walk, fly and swim, stars – all that is just plain to him compared with the place in his heart he keeps for you. God loves you. A lot. When he made you he held you in his hand, nodded approvingly and said to himself, “That’s… that’s very good.”

In this Darwin bicentenary we have all heard, I’m sure, that the genetic maps for humans and chimpanzees are 98% identical - and though I’m no geneticist, I’m sure that is true. But, “So what? Yeah and…?” Coal and diamonds are 100% atomically identical, and we know that diamonds are forever and coal is for burning. That 2% difference between us and even the most developed, most intelligent, most man-like species in the animal world is similarly enormous.

This week, I tried listing some of the differences I see between human beings and all other animals. This is what I came up with; only humans wear clothes. Animals don’t. OK, except this dog. But apart from him, animals don’t wear boots. We use tools; animals don’t. We find meaning in rites of passage; we name our children, marry, bury our dead, hold coming-of-age and remembrance ceremonies. Only humans cry tears when emotional. Only humans laugh, smile or have a sense of humour (okay, not everyone)... Only humans create and invent. We come up with things like the wheel, the printing press, the mobile phone... Only humans have a sense of beauty and transcendence; unlike animals we celebrate, stimulate and provoke in fine art, in making music, in poetry, dance and drama. Only humans have an existential awareness. It occurs to us to ask, “Who am I?” “Where am I from?” No other creature frowns and asks, “What is the meaning of my life?”

Contrary to the logic of the survival of the fittest, we humans look after our weak, our old and our sick, for long periods of time if necessary. We are capable of amazing philanthropy; no animal does good for its own sake. Dogs may be loyal but we are unique in creation as beings capable of expressing and receiving the love in which we find happiness and fulfillment. Human beings ‘make love;’ animals mate. About three months before our cat had kittens I saw her getting it together with the alley cat down the road, and there was nothing… how can I say this in church? They just… made kittens and then went home for tea. In our species, sex has a higher and greater purpose than just producing offspring, it is primarily about expressing desire, commitment, love.

And the last distinction; only humans are on a quest for God and ultimate reality. But as Malcolm Brown, Director of Mission and Public Affairs for the Church of England, has said this week, in a critique of Darwin, “Despite our vastly expanding technical knowledge, even a fairly cursory review of human history undermines any idea of constant moral progress.” That’s right; only human beings sin.

3) Appointed over the Rest of Creation

Thirdly, we are not only distinct from; we are also appointed over the rest of creation. In v28 God gave our species a permanent mission to accomplish - to spread throughout the world and rule it, to multiply and govern. “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it…” We’re back to Freud and Marx; sex and aggression – they were right in a way, but here the mandate is God-centred and not man-centred, and it brings fulfilment, not frustration. “Rule over the fish, the birds and over every living creature,” says God. So the whole awe-inspiring variety of our natural habitat, with its flora and fauna is entrusted to our care. We belong to our environment, yes; but we are also custodians over it.

In fact, this is the beginning of work. The work we do is part of God’s plan. Your ambition, your drive, your natural inclination to seek career promotion and want responsibility, the sense of pride you take in developing a project well, all that ultimately comes from God.

Remembering tomorrow morning that work is good and it is part of what makes us human in God’s image. Ants work to make nests, bees work to make honey, beavers work to build dams; many species “do work.” But none has a charge and responsibility to care for other species or for its natural environment like we do. We’re in charge. We’ve got the job of controlling livestocks; we’re responsible for the management of natural resources, for maintaining air quality and for the state of the water in lakes and seas. God put us in charge, said in effect, “You look after that.”

So we’ve sent thousands of species to oblivion, sometimes innocently, sometimes by greed, sometimes by carelessness. We’ve created acid rain, toxic seas, and North Atlantic cod, once so abundant you could hardly sail a ship though the water, we’ve fished almost to extinction. The rate of acceleration in the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is now so high; some scientists say that freak weather is here to stay. Overall, our track record is not good and it’s not just fringe politicians, new age dropouts in baggy jumpers who say we’ve got to do something about the environment; God started the debate centuries ago, here in v28-30.

4) Spiritual Beings

The fourth thing is this: unlike anything else in creation, however beautiful or splendid or awe-inspiring it is, only we have been made in the image and likeness of God. It means that every human being, however unexceptional, however limited in our eyes, is massively significant. Being made in the image of God means we alone in creation are spiritual beings, we alone can have a relationship with God and indeed we never feel fully human until we discover that.

We are restless, until we find our rest in God, as Saint Augustin put it. That’s because God has designed us that way. Unlike any other created beast, we alone have a God-shaped hole. I love telling the story about the little four-year old girl who grew up in an atheist household. One day she asked her dad, “Daddy, where did I come from?” And dad gave her some really helpful stuff about amino acids, meteorites, primeval matter, DNA, randomness, chance, and so on. Then, just for balance, he added, “Oh, and there are some people who say that all this comes from a very powerful being and they call him God.” The little girl got up and started dancing around the room with joy. “I knew what you told me wasn’t true. It’s him! It’s him!” Somehow, we just sense there is someone out there, especially when we’re young; it’s inbuilt. We just repress it as we get older.

5) Male and Female

The last thing is at the end of v27, a theme that is amplified in chapter 2. God made human beings in his own image; male and female, he created them. In fact, every living creature he had called into existence before Homo sapiens was male and female too, but it just says that God made them “according to their different kinds.” But male and female is specifically mentioned here because I think there’s something about the nuances and subtleties of human maleness and femaleness that reflects God’s character in a distinctive way. Bono sang about the “mysterious distance between a man and a woman” – and there definitely is one. Of our 70,000 human genes, only 78 (those found in the Y chromosome) separate men from women. But what a difference! The fact that we differ from each other at a molecular level means we are distinct from one another in every cell of our bodies.

Here’s a little story that illustrates that. There was once a perfect man who met a perfect woman who fell perfectly in love. After a perfect period of engagement they had a perfect wedding and embarked on a perfect marriage. Everything was just perfect. Then one snowy Christmas Eve, in foul, foul weather, the perfect couple was driving in their perfect car when they saw someone in distress in the street. Being perfect citizens, they stopped right away.

It was Father Christmas with his sack of toys. Not wishing to upset all those kids the next morning, they invited Father Christmas into their car to help him on his way. But the snow storm got worse and worse and the perfect couple and Father Christmas had a road accident. Only one survived. Question: who was it? Answer: the perfect woman. How come? Because everybody knows the perfect man and Father Christmas don’t exist. So, if the perfect man and Father Christmas don’t exist it must have been the woman at the wheel. Which explains why there was a car crash in the first place! Oh dear…

In the 70s and 80s people emphasised the equality of the sexes and, of course, it was mostly a healthy corrective. “Anything you can do, I can do too” as the song went, and quite right too. But maybe we got a bit confused. By imposing a cultural moratorium on talking about our inequalities we lost sight of our unique differences as men and women. Since the mid 90’s, with books like ‘Men Are From Mars…’ people have been less shy about admitting what makes us distinct from each other.

Scientists and anthropologists now think that one of the most significant differences between us sits between the ears. It would appear that men’s brains and women’s brains are not the same – which explains a lot. Women’s brains - get ready for this - are smaller (about 5% on average) but they have more connections, and therefore more interaction, between the left and right hemispheres. This is why, in general, women are more competent verbally than men; they have a bigger space for memorising words which is why they are able to recount conversations they’ve had in great detail to their friends over coffee. It also explains why they are often more intuitive. They tend to be good judges of personality. It’s why women tend to multitask much more readily and efficiently than men.

Men, on the other hand, tend much more to use only one side of their brain at a time. That’s why many of them want to be engineers and work with computers. They often excel in logic and geometry and tend to cope well with abstract concepts. It’s why Kathie sometimes gets out of the car and lets me back it into a small parking space. And it’s why I, in total awe of her multitasking abilities, let her do the ironing, answer the phone, supervise the kids’ homework, feed the cat and mow the lawn while I check the sports reports on the Internet. Only joking…

Ending

So the end of Genesis 1 gives us some amazing answers to the question ‘who are you?’ You are the crown of creation, the spine-tingling crescendo of God’s opus. You have been put in charge of managing God’s estate, given authority over other species. You have been put in charge of oceans, mountains, natural resources, and conservation… You have been lovingly and carefully crafted, shaped in God’s very likeness, mysteriously resembling him, especially in the delightful complementarities that exist between the sexes.

Finally, “Let us make,” says God in v26. ‘In our image’. God seems to be having a conversation with himself. One God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: creator, redeemer, and life-giver. And these three are in an eternal relationship of adoring affection. The Father loves the Son, the Spirit loves the Father, the Son loves the Spirit... Right in the heart of God is a celebration of infinite perfection, a festival of holy joy and endless, unfathomable, unbreakable love. God is love.

This is the God in whose image you are fearfully and wonderfully made!


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 22nd February 2009

Living by Faith: Calling (Genesis 12.1-9 and John 8.34-42)

Introduction

We’re starting a series of talks tonight on how to live by faith. And in order to learn how to live by faith 2,000 years after Christ, we’re going to be looking at the life of a man who lived 2,000 years before Christ. You might be thinking to yourself, “I don’t see how that’s going to be relevant,” but even if Abraham’s world is very different to ours, the God we worship is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – and he doesn’t change.

It’s really important we understand that because otherwise the Bible is just another history book. Some people think that the day of miracles is past. In reality, there has never been a ‘day of miracles,’ there's only a God of miracles and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

In asking the question, “How can I live by faith?” I want to say straight away that the way we hear the word “faith” used in our day is misleading. Here are a few examples: the media talks about “faith schools” which are often centres of educational excellence that are usually popular with parents. There’s a programme on TV at the moment called “Round the World in Eighty Faiths,” in which context the word “faith” means one path among many to spiritual enlightenment. We hear about “faith leaders” which usually means men of ambassadorial status who are basically members of the establishment. “Faith” in much modern-day English usage is just another word for “respectable religion of any variety you like.”

But the Bible never talks about faith in that way. If faith, in our culture, is like a game of croquet with Auntie, in the Bible, faith is more like bungee jumping with Mad Max and Crazy Kev. It’s precarious. It’s an adventure where you stake everything on God’s promises. John Wimber always said we need to spell “faith” r.i.s.k. You see, faith, for so many of our fellow citizens, means knowing where you’re heading but Hebrews 11.8 says quite openly that Abraham, having been introduced as a model of faith, “did not know where he was going.” And being a man, he probably didn’t ask anyone for directions either... So faith is not about self-assurance or self-confidence - and certainly not self-reliance.

In Romans 4, it says that Abraham is the father of all who believe. Hebrews 11 says five times that he lived by faith. In our gospel reading tonight, Jesus says, “If you were Abraham’s children, then you would do the things Abraham did.” Which basically means “if you were people who had faith, you’d be living on the edge.” We’re going to be exploring together over the next seven weeks how Abraham lived by faith and what can we learn from it.

Background

All right. We pick up the story tonight in Genesis 12. Abraham at that time is called Abram and he is 75 years old. In fact, the story actually begins a little earlier and it would be remiss of me to skate over the background.

Chapter 12 begins by saying, “The Lord had said to Abram…” The grammar of that sentence tells you that God’s call had come some time before and that a period of time must have elapsed between God speaking and Abram responding. The end of chapter 11, in fact, explains that Abram and his family had already set out from their home in Ur, to go to Canaan, but when they had got as far as Harran, mysteriously they stopped and settled there. I’ll come back to that later, it’s important. It also says, in v30, that his wife Sarai had no children. In fact, it says it twice in one sentence just to rub it in.

I want you to notice this: God’s call on Abram’s life came at precisely the point of his own powerlessness. God’s call often does. Moses had a speech impediment and a criminal record. Jeremiah was inarticulate and inexperienced. Gideon was small and unimpressive. David was young and disregarded. Mary was a nobody from a nothing town. Paul was violent and anti-Christian. God didn’t wait until they were sorted before he called them. He called them at their point of greatest powerlessness and when they were most unsuitable. For Abram the problem was twofold. 1) He was getting on a bit and 2) his wife was childless and now beyond childbearing age. That’s a bit of a bad start when God tells you to go off and become the father of a great nation, more numerous than the stars in the sky and grains of sand on the shore.

Never dismiss God calling you to do something great on account of you being not yet ready. Some of you here are young. You’re not too young for God to use you mightily. Some of you here are older. You’re not too old for God to call you into new forms of service.

So tonight we’re going to start looking at what it means to live by faith and, in particular, how God calls and how he expects us to respond. Probably the biggest questions we would have tonight are “how do I know God is calling me?” and “how and when should I respond to that call?”

Well, I think Genesis 12 sets out four tests. Here they are: 1) Can I trust the promises of God? 2) Am I determined to keep going? 3) Am I able to work with others? And 4) Am I ready to step out of my comfort zone?

1) Can You Trust the Promises of God?

First test, can I trust the promises of God? We know from other parts of the Bible that Abram believed that the land of Canaan would be given to him (though it was inhabited by Canaanites) and that an heir would be born to him (though his wife was well past the menopause). And it seems that his confidence was founded on God’s promise to him in the opening verses of Genesis 12 where God sets out his manifesto; this is what I am going to do. “I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you; I will make your name great, I will bless, I will curse.”

God’s call on Abram’s life, and God’s call on your life starts with what he is going to do; not with what you are going to do. God says, “I will do it.”

About ten years ago, Kathie and I were trying to sell a house. We placed it in a number of agencies and put an advert in a seller-to-buyer property magazine. Lots of interest, many visits, no offers. So, of course, I started to wonder about whether we had set the too high, and then worry if anyone would want to buy our horrible house and whether we were going to be stuck with this millstone forever. Plus the stress of having to keep the place impeccable for visits which, with four children, is a challenge. Months passed - and nothing was happening.

And then I was reminded of these promises from God: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness - then all these other things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6.33). And this one: “Don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4.6-7).

I made an intentional decision not to fret about the house. It’s not important, it’s just a pile of bricks and my heavenly Father will sort it out. Within one week, two people made firm offers. So the sale became something of an auction and, in the end, we agreed to sell it for more than it was actually worth. God is faithful and he honours his promises.

However, it is much easier to listen to feelings of uncertainty and insecurity than it is to stake everything on some words on a page. Yes, God says, “I will never abandon or forsake you.” Yes, the Bible says, “God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. Instead, along with the temptation he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to endure it.” Yes, God says, “Those who honour me I will honour.” Yes, Jesus says, “Surely I will be with you until the end of the age.” But that’s not always what it feels like, is it?

A friend of mine, who is a former RAF pilot, told me that when aircraft pilots fly upside-down they sometimes have the feeling of being right-way up. The sensation is caused by fluid in the ear. If you tilt your head to one side the hairs in the fluid-filled part of the ear tell the brain that the head is tilted and the signal is reinforced by what the eyes are telling the brain - and you adjust your balance accordingly. However, this sense of balance can be confused by other sensations - especially during acceleration after take-off where the fluid may send a signal to the brain that does not match what is actually happening. The signal can also be even more confusing if a pilot is flying with blocked ears (a head cold for example) and it’s made much worse when flying in cloud with no visual references. So, the bottom line is this: pilots are taught to always rely on their instruments and never on their feelings.

A pilot’s life and those of his crew and passengers, may depend on him not listening to his senses, choosing instead to follow his instruments. It’s exactly the same with God’s promises. It is deadly to trust your feelings and ignore God’s promises. Abram must have felt, “Wait a minute; I am old and I am getting older. Sarai in a maternity ward - it’s not going to happen. Come on, Abram, wake up and smell the bagels.” But despite all that, v4 says this; “So Abram left as the Lord had told him…” Can you trust the promises of God?

2) Are You Determined to Keep Going?

Test 2: Are you determined to keep going? Abram kept moving. God promised him an heir at the age of 75. But it didn’t happen overnight or even nine months later. He had to wait. And hang on. And keep going.

Did you notice how he just keeps going in this passage? In v1 God says, “Go.” In v4 he sets off. In v5 he arrives in Canaan. In v6 he travels a bit further, as far as Shechem. In v8, he heads off again; this time to the hills east of Bethel. In v9 he’s on the move yet again, this time to the Negev in the south.

Some years ago, the was a piece in the papers about hee pot-holers who had gone missing. Search and rescue teams found them in the end but they got there too late and they were already dead. Tragically, they were just a few hundred metres short of daylight but they had become disorientated, cold, and had stopped for several hours which proved fatal. The coroner’s inquest into their deaths concluded by saying, “If only they had kept moving.”

Are you still moving forward as a Christian? Are you reading? Are you learning? Are you going to conferences? Abram kept going.Are you growing? Are you taking action to nourish your faith? Compare this with Abram’s father. At the end of chapter 11, they had all set out from Ur to go to Canaan but Abram’s dad Terah got stuck in Harran, which is only about half way there. I feel this might be a word for some here tonight. Your parents may have settled for half measures with God – but you don’t have to. You can go further. Are you determined to keep going?

Summing up Abraham’s life in one paragraph, we can say this: he left his comfortable home to live in a tent. When he finally arrived in the Promised Land, as we’ll see next week, there was a famine - so he had to move on again straight away to Egypt. When he got to Egypt he treated his wife dishonourably which had embarrassing consequences. So he had to get of there too. He headed back to Canaan, where a military coalition was waiting to declare war against him. Eleven years down the line, having spent the whole time wandering round the Middle-East like a nomad, getting into trouble with everyone he met, he still had no heir. Sarah talked him into having a child through her servant girl, (which was normal practice). God had to remind him that he had clearly said that his wife Sarah was to be the mother of the child to be born. But a full thirteen years after that episode passed - and there was still no natural heir. Finally, God said twenty-five years after the adventure started, that the promised child would be born a year hence. Twelve months later, Isaac was born. But though all that trouble and frustration he kept going…

The New Zealand Christian author Mike Riddell wrote about an experience he once had of driving in the dark in the dead of winter. He reached down to switch the heater on, just as he was approaching a narrow bridge, but he hit the wrong switch and he turned his headlights off by mistake. Suddenly the lights went out as he drove towards the bridge and there was no time to reach down and fiddle about to locate the light switch. He just had to keep going forward with nothing but the mental picture of the bridge he had had just before it all went dark.

If you’re finding it hard to see your way ahead spiritually, call to mind your cherished memories of God’s goodness when it was clearer for you. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”

3) Are You Able to Work with Others?

Test 3. Are you able to work with others? This might seem like I’m stretching things a bit, but I don’t think so. When Abram was called, v4 says he took Lot with him. When Moses was called, he took Aaron with him. When Paul was called he took Silas and Timothy.

Listen; lone rangers, like Samson and Saul, who want all the glory for themselves, who refuse correction, who do their own thing, who avoid accountability and who are on an ego trip go nowhere. God is not going to bless that. Each of us needs to be able to include others into the call of God on our lives. So Abram took Lot and all his family with him. They were part of the adventure as well.

I remember Pat Harris talking once about a time when he was busy with some frightfully important sermon preparation and his wife popped her head round the door and said, “You’ll need to look after David today.” David is their son who has quite severe learning difficulties. Well, this was an inconvenient and busy time so Pat said, “No. What about my preparation for my ministry?” And she said, “This is your preparation for your ministry!” Can you take others into God’s call on your life?

 4) Are You Ready to Leave Your Comfort Zone?

Last test: Are you ready to leave your comfort zone? God says, (v1) “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” So a God tells Abram, ten years into a comfortable retirement, to emigrate to a foreign land, learn a new language, leave behind his home, his culture and his friends probably to never see them again.

I hardly need to say that that is a tough call. About a century ago, Archaeologists dug up Abraham’s former city, on the shores of the Persian Gulf. When they reached the layer of soil which corresponds to Abraham’s day, they discovered amazing things; a temple 23 metres high, canals, smart villas with cavity walls and central heating, advanced piped sanitation systems and decorative fountains. Abram left all that at the age of seventy-five to walk around in a sweaty and dusty old tent, made of camel skins, somewhere in the Arabian desert, miles from anywhere.

Abram accepted that life, forgoing a comfortable little villa by the sea, to live in tents in a desert, at a ripe old age, convinced, says Hebrews 11, that there was a city somewhere, but not knowing where it was, or how to get there, and therefore having not the first idea where he was going. Goodbye Comfort Zone, it was nice knowing you!

Someone once said “Ships are never safer than when they are in a harbour – but ships were made for the open seas.” Have you become a bit comfortable? Is it time to step out and live by faith?

 Conclusion

I’m going to stop there. How are you doing on the “Living by Faith” test? Are you trusting in God’s promises or are you believing your feelings? Are you still keeping going or have you slowed down - or stopped altogether? Are you bringing others into your calling or are you a ministry loner? Are you ready to leave your comfort zone or are you content with telling your grandchildren you spent your life watching repeats of Top Gear on Dave?

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 15th February 2009

The Father’s Family (1 John 2.3-17 )

Introduction

The author William Feather once said; “Life begins at 40, and so do lumbago, faulty eyesight and the tendency to tell a story to the same person three or four times.” I’m well in my 40s now, but I don’t think I repeat myself all that much. It’s true isn’t it? People over a certain age become “repetitive” or “garrulous.” But I don’t think I repeat myself all that much...

At the time John’s first letter was written, he was an old man, probably in his 80’s or 90’s and so it’s not surprising that he repeats himself quite a lot in this letter. Or rather, he kind of goes round in circles, coming back to the same point over and over, but each time looking at it from a slightly different angle.

The apostle John was quite a character. When he met Jesus, he was a very young man with a hot temper. Jesus nicknamed him (and his brother James) sons of thunder. In the gospels, you see why. He once asked Jesus to call down fire from heaven on Samaritans because they didn’t believe in him. He was, in short, a loose cannon, a hot headed, tempestuous, vengeful man. But Jesus chose him to be one of the twelve. That’s because when Jesus looks at you, he doesn’t just see what you are, he looks deeper and sees what you can become, by grace, through faith, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

By the time John wrote this letter, probably six decades after meeting Jesus, he had become a mild-mannered, benign and kindly old gentleman who was always going on about love, and calling his fellow believers “dear children,” or “dear friends”. That’s what a lifetime of knowing Jesus does for you. It’s a bit like dogs resembling their owners. You become like the people you love and serve.

So let me say this straight away. God takes you as you come. You couldn’t do anything at all to make him love you more fondly or accept you more readily. But by the time he’s finished with you, you might look very different - you probably will. But it will be his work. Being a Christian is not self-help. God takes us just the way we are. That’s grace. But his goal is to change us into what we should be. That’s mercy.

This Is for You

So, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, old John writes this rambling letter. He writes it to three sorts of Christians; new believers, committed Christians and mature disciples. He calls them, in v12-14, “little children, young men and fathers.” Which group would you say you belonged to? New believers, committed Christians, mature disciples.

First of all, new believers. What does he say to them? Two things: he says that they know their sins are forgiven (v12) and they’ve discovered God as their Father (end of v13). That’s a good start. Those of you who are young in the faith really don’t need to go any further until you’ve understood those two things. Let’s take them in turn; first, forgiveness.

When we ask God to forgive us, he totally wipes out the stain of sin in our lives. He completely cleans the slate. You haven’t got to go on confessing the same thing, cringing and begging and hoping that God might just decide to give you a break! Our God freely pardons. I’ve spoken to people from other faiths and this is the big thing that makes Christians different from Muslims, Hindus, Jehovah’s Witnesses or Buddhists: we can be totally assured of full forgiveness.

Dr Karl Menninger, an American psychiatrist and not a Christian, once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that they were forgiven, 75% of them would walk out the next day. I don’t know how true that is, but I have met many people in pastoral ministry whose growth as a Christian is horribly stunted because they never learned this basic thing.

But let me say this too. (And this is fundamental but there are many older Christians who haven’t learned this yet); God will totally forgive you and bring blessing and renewal into your life to the same measure that you are freely forgiving and blessing others who have wronged you. “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” This is hard isn’t it?

You may have been profoundly wronged. You may have been offended as an innocent party. Someone has been unfair to you, you’ve been ill-treated, let down, betrayed. I’ve been through that too and it took me a long time to get to a place where I could genuinely wish the best for the person who harmed me and speak well of them. But I know now that it’s one of the keys to blessing and new life. Forgiveness brings healing to the restless soul and restores peace with God.

These young believers have understood that and they have also started off in their walk with God by relating to him as Father. They know they are children of God, loved and accepted by him. God is everything you long for in a Father with none of the downsides we associate with our own fallen, imperfect dads. He is devoted, he cares, he protects, he corrects, he provides - and you want to be like him. That’s the Father heart of God and these new Christians have discovered how good he is. Is your soul alive to the glad affection your Father lavishes on you in Christ?

John’s writing to older Christians too. They’re not “little children” any more so John addresses them as “young men.” (Or as the latest revision of the NIV translates it, “young people.” John was not only writing to male Christians here). As they’ve gone on further, he says (in v14), they’ve become strong. Where does that vigour come from? John says, “You’re strong because the word of God lives in you.” They’ve been reading and soaking in the Bible and it’s built up their spiritual muscle.

And you know what God strengthens people for don’t you? It tells you, twice, (in the middle of v13 and the end of v14). It’s so that when the devil attacks you can prevail and not give in. They’ve had some victories already; “you have overcome the evil one,” he says. They’re resisting temptation. They’re standing firm against Satan’s accusations. They’re prevailing against his constant attempts to grind them down. They’ve begun to be discerning. They can tell when the father of lies is talking. They’re seeing strongholds come down through prayer. They’ve strengthened themselves in the word of God and they’re winning.

Listen; we cannot take ground from Satan if Satan has ground in us. You win the battle and you win it decisively, says 1 John 2.14, if you are fortified by the Word of God. And if you aren’t doing that, then spiritually it can get ugly out there.

There’s a story about a man who wanted to sell his house. He found a buyer but he was poor, so he couldn’t afford the full price. So they started bargaining and after much discussion, the owner agreed to sell the house half price on one condition: He would retain ownership of one small nail hanging over the front door. After several years, the original owner wanted the house back, but the new owner was unwilling to sell. So the first owner went out, found a dead dog, and hung it from the single nail he still owned. Soon the smell was so disgusting, the house became uninhabitable, and the man was forced to sell the house back to the owner of the nail. If I leave the Devil even one small peg in my life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it, making it unfit for Christ’s habitation.

So how are you doing against the powers of evil? Are you winning? Does the Devil still have a little nail hanging over your front door? It could be unforgiveness, it could be unbelief. It could be an improper relationship, or a wrong attitude. It could be a compulsive habit or a spiritual compromise. The only way is to take that nail off and fix it to Christ’s cross. “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires” says Galatians 5.24.

Young believers and committed Christians; John is also writing to mature and experienced disciples; models that others in the church look up to. He calls them “fathers” in v13, probably because they knew what it was to lead people to Christ and have spiritual children. “I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning,” a sentence he repeats in the following verse.

What’s your goal as a Christian? Think about that... The distinguishing feature of mature disciples, according to v14 is to really know God. Even the apostle Paul, who had been caught up to paradise, who had seen the Lord’s glory on the road to Damascus, who spoke in tongues more than all the Corinthians, who had ecstatic celestial encounters in the 3rd heaven, we’re told - so amazing he didn’t even know whether it was an out of the body experience or not - Paul, twenty years after his conversion wrote about having one single future aspiration: “I just want to know Christ...” That’s all I need.

There is no greater thing than knowing Jesus. If you’re going to attain maturity, being parents in God as it were to younger believers, then make knowing Christ your highest ambition. Are you hungry to know God more?

John could have been writing to us at All Saints.’ New believers, older Christians and wise, mature disciples. Each of us is at a different stage in our walk with God. The question is, “Are you advancing?”

The theme this morning is “the Father’s family.” What does it mean to be a part of God’s family? Looking at this passage, I put it to you that it means three things; loving God, loving each other and loathing the world.

1) Loving God

Firstly, being in the Father’s family is about a loving relationship with God; it all starts there. How would you define love? It’s not easy... A psychology textbook once defined it as, “the cognitive affective state characterised by intrusive and obsessive fantasising concerning reciprocity of amorant feeling by the object of the amorance.” If you want a definition that is a little more accessible, the Bible defines love for God as obeying his commands. That’s what it says in v5. “If anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them.”

There’s a story about a woman who was suffering from marital unhappiness, so her concerned husband took her to see a specialist. He listens to the couple talk about their relationship, and then says, “The treatment I prescribe is really quite simple.” He goes over to the man’s wife, gathers her up in his arms, and gives her a big kiss. He then steps back and looks at the woman’s glowing face and broad smile. So he turns to the woman’s husband and says, “See! That’s basically all she needs, twice a week.” So the man replies, “OK Doctor, I’ll bring her in on Tuesdays and Fridays.”

Loving God is more than dutifully turning up on Wednesdays and Sundays. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being very weak and 10 being very strong, how great is your love for God, measured in obeying his commands from the heart?

2) Loving Each Other

The next thing is loving each other. In John’s Gospel and letters, life is very black and white, with no shades of grey. In all his writings there are sharp contrasts, you might have noticed it. You are either one thing or the opposite. So he says, for example, you have gone;

· from darkness to light
· from hate to love
· from lies to truth
· from not knowing God to knowing Him
· from lawlessness to righteousness
· from being children of the devil to being children of God

In v9 John says that you can’t claim you love God if you hate your fellow believer. There’s something not quite right about sending someone a card with “Jesus loves you” written on it, if it says inside, “But I think you’re a creep!”

Loving God through obedience to him is one thing. But loving others, how are we going to do this? There are an awful lot of annoying people in the world and some of them come to church! How are we going to love people we’d frankly rather avoid? The answer lies in one little word. John keeps addressing his readers as “children.” He does it in verse 1 and verse 18, for example. He deliberately uses the word “child” and not the word “son”, which Paul uses in Romans 8 and Ephesians 1. In those days, only the sons inherited the Father’s blessings, so Paul was basically saying, “In Christ, everything comes to us.”

But John is not really talking about inheritance here. He is making a different point, and equally wonderful. It’s not just that we receive from God all good things. John’s point here is that, as his children, we actually become like he is. There is a family likeness.

F.F. Bruce says, “The words used denote relationship to God and carry with them also the connotation of likeness to God; the two ideas are inseparable, for likeness is the proof of relationship.” Likeness is the proof of relationship.

Our four children all happen to resemble me very closely. This is a disadvantage for them. But it is also a relief for me, particularly in Joseph’s case. When the pregnancy was diagnosed, they calculated the expected date of delivery. I wouldn’t normally have a problem with that. But according to their maths I was actually 200 miles away from Kathie at the estimated time of conception. Now my wife is gifted, but not that gifted! But Joe is my son and everybody knows it because, I’m told, he looks like me.

“Likeness is the proof of relationship.” Joe is my son and everybody knows it. Same thing with God. We know we are God’s because we are like him - not physically, but in terms of our character. There is more of it in our lives than there was before, if we are walking with God and the more we become like him the more we can love the unlovable.

3) Loathing the World

So love for God and love for others. Pursue both with all your energy. But there’s another love here and it’s a love you should repudiate as strongly as you pursue the other two; John calls it love for the world and he strongly warns against it. He’s not saying, “Don’t love the people in the world.” He is saying, “Don’t be attracted to life without God. Hate all that is under Satan’s rule. Throw off your attachment to, and affection for, the glitz and glamour and passing pleasure of life without God.

What does John say? Verses 15-17. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If you love the world, love for the Father is not in you. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful people, the lust of their eyes and their boasting about what they have and do—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”

I think one of the devil’s biggest lies is that Christians miss out because they don’t buy into the world’s appeal. Somehow, because we’re Christians, we get a raw deal.

There’s a story of an old priest and trainee priest in a Confessional. It was the trainee’s turn to hear confession. It lasted a little while and the penance was suitably quite long at the end. “How did I do?” said the novice to the old pro. “It was a start,” he replied, “but you must learn moderation. When hearing a confession of excesses of the flesh, you should solemnly say, “I see, my child.” Don’t say, “Wow!”

There’s nothing “wow!” about the world. Let’s get this silly idea out of our minds once and for all that Satan gives you a good time. He doesn’t. He gives you Hell. Worldliness simply creates in us a dependence, a thirst for more, which eventually all goes sour.

Listen to the words of Lord Byron, one of England’s libertine poets: “Drank every cup of joy, heard every trump of fame; drank early; drank deeply; drank draughts which common millions might have drunk. Then died of thirst, because there was no more to drink.”

“Don’t love the world”, says John, “or anything in it. All that stuff, the cravings, the appetites, the boasting about what we’ve got, comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

Ending

So that’s the Father’s family – new, growing believers; solid, committed Christians; wise, mature disciples; lovers of God, lovers of others and loathers of sin. Like every family it has its moments but no other family has a Father like this one. Aren’t you glad you’re in?


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 8th February 2009

The Father’s Plan (Ephesians 1.3-10)

Introduction

Some years ago I was given this 1,000 piece puzzle for Christmas. So why is it still in the cellophane wrapping? I’m ashamed to say I am just not patient enough to do jigsaws of that size. If you were to open the lid of this box, you would see a bewildering pile of different coloured pieces. Where do you start? How do you go about putting it all together? Well, what you usually do is sort the straight edged pieces from the rest. Then you place the corners in position. Then, using the picture on the box as a guide, you can start to piece together the outline. Once you’ve done that, you're ready to work inwards. Is that how you do jigsaws? Well, counting the infinite and astoundingly great blessings of God is a bit like opening the lid and sorting through hundreds of pieces a great puzzle. Ephesians 1, if you like, is the picture on the box.

It’s the plan, the big picture. Ephesians 1 is God’s sweeping revelation of who he is, who we are and why we are here, in all its wide-angle majesty. It’s the bird’s eye view or, more accurately, the God’s eye view of his great purpose from all eternity till kingdom come for life, the universe and everything. And because we tend to spend most of our lives zooming in on the features of the landscape (in other words the small detail of the ups and downs of existence), we sometimes forget the big picture.

But today, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re starting a series of three talks on God’s Father Heart and we’re starting out this morning with a wide-angle view on his great plan, his grand design, his glorious scheme, lovingly conceived from all eternity, to adopt you and me into his family. We’re going to look at truth about ourselves from God’s grandstand perspective.

1) What God Says About Our Present (v1-2, 7-8)

If Ephesians 1 says quite a lot about who believers in Christ really are, from God’s viewpoint, it also says quite a lot about how we got to be there. And it gives us a tantalising glimpse of what’s in store for us in the future.

First of all, what does God say about who we are, who you are? In v1 Paul addresses a group of ordinary Christians living in Ephesus. But it could be here. He calls them ‘saints’ and describes them as ‘faithful in Christ Jesus’. ‘Saints’ is a regrettable translation, and the latest revision of the NIV uses the expression ‘holy people’ which is less confusing. The word Paul uses literally means an individual who is ‘set apart to belong to God’. It’s someone who ‘stands out’, who is ‘chosen’ or ‘distinctive’. When God calls those who belong to him ‘saints’ he means, ‘You are special to me.’ Do you see yourself in that way? Because it’s true. Don’t listen to what you say about you. Your heavenly Father says that you are truly exceptional in his eyes. Whatever you or anyone else feels or thinks, that is the truth about you.

In v7-8, God says, “we have redemption through his blood and the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.” Let’s tease that out and try to grasp what it means for us.

“We have redemption through his blood and the forgiveness of sins...” says Paul. The truth is that every wrong thing you and I do, every wrong thought we think, has an addictive power that ends up controlling you. That’s why Jesus said, “Everyone who sins is a slave of sin.” People who drink alcohol excessively, or who inject drugs, or who visit pornographic websites, or who binge on chocolate, or who bet on horse races or who smoke tobacco can become addicted. We know the dangers of getting hooked on these things. But all sin is addictive. It’s equally true, for example, when I throw a temper or seethe with jealousy or allow pride to take root by making much of myself or indulge in a bit of juicy gossip. If I don’t cut those things at the root by taking authority and rebuking them and repenting of them, they can all get a grip on my life and become habitual, then compulsive. They have an addictive power, making me a slave to them.

We’ve been talking about money and giving over the last few weeks and we talked about debt in that context. Debt is a massive problem in our culture. But it was also a big issue in the ancient world – and, in fact, the stakes were higher. The last resort if you got yourself into serious arrears back then was to put yourself up for sale as a slave at the market and the price on your head would be equivalent of what you owed. For some desperate people it was the only way out of financial insolvency. If somebody bought you in the market, your debts would be cancelled, but you would become the property forever of your new master. You would be at his service, for the rest of your days. No rights, no pay, no holidays, no choices, no fun…

Suppose you’re sitting in the slave market with a price tag of £1 million round your neck. And suppose someone comes past and says, “I feel sorry for you. I’d like to help you. And what I’m going to do for you is this. I’m going to pay all your debts off in full. But I’m not going to take you as my slave; I’m going to give you back your freedom instead.” The technical term for that was redemption. They would have paid the ransom price. We use the word ‘ransom’ these days with kidnappers and hostages, but the slave market is where the word originally came from. Now, what v7 tells us is that Jesus came to secure our redemption. We were hopelessly indebted, we were slaves to sin and he came and paid the ransom price, not in cash but in his blood, by dying a horrific death in our place on a cross, so that we can walk away free.

A few years ago, I prayed with a guy who wanted to give up his cannabis habit. There was a prophetic word in a service; a picture of an axe cutting the retaining rope on a hot air balloon. And the word was, “When are you going to cut the rope and fly?” That really spoke to him so he asked me to pray with him. He had been a Christian for some time, but for years he had put off dealing with this issue in his life. He was dating a lovely Christian girl, about 30 years old, who was saying to him, “I am not going to marry you until you end this habit.” Our Father God touched him in a deep way that day and he hasn’t gone near that drug since. Last March I preached at their wedding. Because of the cross, the addiction is broken and that man is ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.

Last year I invited Stéphane Bertheau, who is Director of Living Waters Ministries in Paris. Stéphane came to Christ whilst trapped and confused in a promiscuous gay lifestyle. It’s been a long road for Stéphane, and he admitted that he throws himself on the mercy and grace of God every day but God has brought redemption and freedom and healing in his life. He’s now married and works as an assistant pastor. Because of the cross, he is ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.

Do you need to be released from something that has a grip on you today? Something that you can’t defeat and just keeps coming back time and time again? Christ is here. Christ’s awesome power breaks the chains of spiritual tyranny. Christ paid the price on your head. Christ redeems all from the power and grip of those things that destroy lives. Don’t leave here today without asking the Lord to break the bonds that keep you enslaved to sin. That is what God says about who we are in the present; special to him, our debts cancelled, our addictions broken, our guilt forgiven.

2) What God Says About Our Past (v3-6)

But in v3-6 God says something quite mind-blowing about our past.

If you’ve ever received a letter or an e-mail from me, the chances are that I closed with two little words. People often sign off saying things like, “Take care” or “Many thanks” or “Best regards.” These endings can often be no more than a polite formality but the two words I used when I wrote to you were carefully chosen and they come directly from our reading in Ephesians 1; the words are, “Every blessing.” It’s become a semi-conscious habit for me when I write those words to fleetingly ask God the Father to bring whoever I am writing to into the marvellous fullness of each and every heavenly blessing in Christ that are the birthright of every believer.

Verse 3: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”

That verse says we have at our disposal, now, “every spiritual blessing in Christ” – which is pretty comprehensive – and he then goes on to say how that came about. And it’s quite surprising. Your story with God goes right back to before time began, before the universe, before creation, to a point when only God was. It was then that your heavenly Father chose you. Then your Father predestined you. Your Father had it in his mind even then, because he loves you, that he would be glad to adopt you into his family. That was going to be a particular delight to him. He took great pleasure in choosing you, and deciding to lavish on you every spiritual and heavenly blessing in Christ, knowing you would have good days and bad days, knowing you would turn out a sinner, knowing you would never really deserve it. All this was in his plan from the start.

Therefore your adoption has nothing to do with your value, your worth, or your gifts. Your adoption is anchored forever in God’s eternal pleasure and purpose. That means that your adoption is absolutely not insecure or conditional or fragile. God will not change his mind about adopting you on becoming disappointed with the way you turn out. He chose you and predestined you for adoption knowing you would never deserve it and never be able to earn it. That means his fatherly approval and favour towards you is firm and settled and permanent. He has predestined it from all eternity past and will hold it unshaken till all eternity future.

Do you have a problem with that? Because some people do. This is what v4-5 actually say; “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”

And of course the difficulty people have with all this is a matter of simple logic. If God, in his love, predestines only some to become his children, that must mean he inclines others to reject his love and salvation. That makes God look terribly arbitrary, even cruel. What are we to make of this? What about Malachi 1.2-3 where God says, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated”? What about God hardening Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus? Paul said in Romans 9.18, “God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden.” It’s not easy to get excited about predestination if it means God has predisposed us to believe and be saved, while he has pre-programmed others to disbelieve and be damned. It doesn’t seem fair does it?

We’ll have a look at the specific case of Pharaoh in a minute but first of all, let’s ask ourselves a question. What certainty could we have about life, the future, the battle of good and evil and the end of the world if God had his hands tied, wasn’t in control and left everything to chance? What if God just had to hope that it will all pan out OK in the end? What confidence could you have then that the goodness of God will finally prevail? The answer is absolutely none at all. But if God really is in total control, we know that our lives are secure in his plan and purpose, that the future is safe in his hands and that the battle between good and evil will be decisively won in the end by Christ.

If God really is in charge, you need not worry that some loose cannon will press a button starting a nuclear war that will wipe out life on earth, or that a pandemic will destroy the human race. God will trust nobody but his Son with the honour of inaugurating end of the world. So the teaching of the Bible that God is sovereign over the affairs of this universe, that he reigns and rules over the nations, and that nothing is outside the all-embracing scope of his cosmic plan, should be a source of great assurance and confidence for us. And the thing is, God’s wisdom is so great and his power is so awesome, and his designs are so excellent that he is able to weave his total all-knowing authority with our complete and real free will.

Some Christians are troubled by the story of the plagues of Egypt because God hardens Pharaoh’s heart. Doesn’t he? Yes, he does. It’s there in black and white. In fact, it’s worse: God not only hardens Pharaoh’s heart, he punishes him afterwards.

But when you read Exodus 5-11 carefully, you find that Pharaoh hardens his own heart seven times. He obstinately refuses to cooperate with, God from his own free choice, before God starts to harden his heart further. So it was Pharaoh who deliberately and freely rebelled against God. When that attitude had become permanent, God in effect said, “If that’s what you want, then that’s what you get.”

And that is how God works with all who stubbornly rebel against his just and holy laws. In Romans 1 Paul explains that this is how God consistently operates with society. When sin goes too far and becomes endemic, God hands civilizations over to the folly of their rebellion against him. And people block their ears and hate to hear this, but this is what the Bible says happens; trash culture and sick humour become prevalent. People begin to worship the environment instead of its Designer. Unnatural sex becomes widespread and is promoted shamelessly. Respect for authority and common decency breaks down. Greed and deceit become normal. Ringing any bells? All this is an open expression of God’s righteousness and I for one tremble for our Western civilisation, because it shows all the warning signals of provoking God’s judgment right now.

But today is also a day of grace. On all who cry out to God and ask for forgiveness and appeal for mercy, he pours out his fatherly kindness. He adopts into his family, lavishing blessing upon blessing on all those who call on Christ, and place their lives in his hands. If you have never done that before, can I urge you strongly to do it today? Why hesitate? Why put it off? Come to Christ, or come back to Christ, today of your own free will – and rejoice that it is already God’s perfect plan to bless you from before time began! So God forgives and loves and redeems all those who are his special people, who he has predestined and chosen to belong to him. That’s the superb present and the surprising past. Now for the surpassing future...

3) What God Says About Our Future (v9-10)

In v9-10 Paul says that God “made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment - to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.”

That’s where it’s all going. As John Stott puts it, “God’s plan is that all things which were created through Christ and for Christ and which hold together in Christ will finally be united under Christ by being subjected to his headship.”

It’s all about him, and it’s all for him. God’s plan is big scale; it encompasses with ease all wisdom and all knowledge. It includes virtue and justice. It reaches every limit of time and space, effortlessly stretching distances in the scale of billions of light-years. It starts before time began and goes on beyond time and into eternity. And if you are in Christ you have a vital and integral stake in that future.

Ending

This is the wide-angle lens through which God sees everything. It’s also the macro lens with which he sees every beat of your heart. And this is the assurance he wants you to enjoy as a confident and loved child. So if you find yourself asking, “Does God really love me?” Or “Am I really saved?” Or “Is God really in charge?” Or “What about the future?” take a look again at the Father’s plan in Ephesians 1.

God has, in his hands, all that is yet to come. If you have asked Christ to be your Lord and Saviour, then the matter is settled and you can be completely confident. You are a child of God, you are the object of his limitless affection, you are born from above, chosen before the creation of the world and predestined to be holy, adopted and treasure by your heavenly Father, rescued forever from the terrible wrath that is to come fully, but that is already being revealed in part; you are an inheritor of the kingdom of God, paid for in full, restored and healed, completely forgiven and reckoned as righteous in Christ, with every good thing from heaven at your disposal.

That is what God the Father says about you.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 25th January 2009

First Fruits (Malachi 3.6-12 and Matthew 23.23-24)

Introduction

In 1979 the police in Rome uncovered a remarkable crime. Father Guido Antonelli, a humble parish priest, was discovered in the crypt of his church printing 1,000 lire banknotes! In his defence, he complained that he had to resort to forgery because his parishioners weren’t putting enough cash in the offering at Mass! I hasten to add that we are certainly not intending to take such a radical approach to the finances here. For a start, we haven’t got a crypt...

This is the last in our little series on money and giving. Some of the highlights of the eight talks (morning and evening) are these:

1) Remember that everything belongs to God. Sometimes people imagine that we have to resort to teach on giving from time to time because poor old God is short of cash again and we need to help him out a bit. No! In Psalm 50.9-12 God says, “I have no need... every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills... If I were hungry I would not tell you.” The whole earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. That’s where to start when thinking about giving.

2) Enjoy what you have instead of dwelling on what you don’t have. Hebrews 13.5 says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.” Jesus said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; your life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions.” (Luke 12.15).

3) Understand that having much money can become a burden that blunts your spiritual cutting edge. Jesus said that “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness - note that word - the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word (of God planted in you) and make it unfruitful.” (Matthew 13.22).

4) If the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (and it is because God’s word says so) then the reverse is also true. Love for God, expressed through a generous, giving heart, gladly releasing resources for the kingdom of God, lies at the root of all kinds of blessing and righteousness.

5) Living on credit is a snare. Incidentally, having a mortgage is not living on credit. Falling behind on your repayments is. J. John was right when he said how crazy it is that people spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need to keep up with neighbours they don’t even like! That’s the folly of credit. Proverbs 22.7 in the Message version says, listen to this now, “The poor are always ruled over by the rich, so don’t borrow and put yourself under their power.” When you see one of those ‘buy now, pay later’ offers, remember (before you get the credit card out), that by the time you’ve paid for it you’ll no longer want it.

6) Give God your first fruits, not your last fruits. 1 Corinthians 16.2 says, “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income...” Notice he doesn’t say, give to God out of what’s left after you’ve covered all your outgoings. The term “first fruits” implies priority and precedence. And that’s the theme of this talk tonight.

1) Put God to the Test

The Prophecy of Malachi was written about 450 years before Christ. At that time, God’s people had returned from exile in Babylon and had begun to rebuild Jerusalem. There was a city wall with its gates crucial for security; there were new houses, there was a temple. All the signs of a society in recovery from trauma were there. A nation was miraculously back from the brink.

But not everything was going well. The harvest was failing – not just once but again and again. It was becoming predictably depressing. Why? Why were things not working out? It was because spiritually things had also become predictably depressing. Here are a few symptoms: In chapter 1 we discover that the people were ungrateful and the priests were doing their work carelessly and half-heartedly. Worship had become tired and stale. A season of spiritual malaise had become ingrained. In chapter 2 you find that people were getting married to unbelievers from idolatrous nations. Men were being unfaithful to their wives. Marriages were falling apart. In chapter 3 Malachi says that the people were oppressing widows, forgetting orphans, neglecting immigrants and overlooking the poor. The nation was in a state because it was becoming disconnected from God.

What single diagnosis does God give to this wide range of problems? It’s in v9: “You are under a curse - your whole nation - because you are robbing me.”

And what single remedy does God prescribe to lift the curse on the nation? It comes in the following verse; v10. “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.”

Here’s the background: The people of Israel, from the time of Moses onwards, had to give a tithe, that is to say 10% of their income. It was a compulsory tax and Deuteronomy 14 says it was levied for three reasons; firstly to celebrate the abundance of God’s provision; secondly, to give an income to the Levites in the temple who had no other way of earning a living; and thirdly, to assist the poor who had fallen on hard times. Everyone had to give 10% of their pay for those reasons.

But in Malachi’s day people were cheating on their taxes. They were trying to get away with 7%, 2%, 0%, 5%... They had fallen on hard times. When your harvests fail disastrously two, three, four years running, your economy falls into recession. I guess the people of Malachi’s day were saying, “Come on, you’ve got to be sensible, tighten the belt, make a few savings, cut back on non essentials.” But God says in v10, “Bring the whole tithe.” All of it. It’s precisely in these difficult times that I am looking to you for faithfulness in your finances.”

Time out! Isn’t God a bit severe here? Isn’t this a bit harsh, a bit insensitive? Well look what God promises to those who faithfully give back to him the first fruits, the first tenth. He talks about floodgates opening and superabundant provision and amazing blessing. He says you won’t have anywhere to put it all. And then God says something truly outrageous in v10. In case anyone was beginning to think “nah”, God says, “Come on then, try me! Test me.”

Now God had explicitly said in Deuteronomy 6.16, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Do not do that. Time and time again God says in the Bible, “Don’t test me.” The one and only exception is right here. When it comes to money God permits us, indeed he actually eggs us on, to step out in faith and challenge him to deliver. He stakes his honour on this. You want to see if God can be trusted? Give back to the Lord to the radical limits of your faith. Give him back the first tenth even when it’s a struggle to pay the bills. Step out in faith even in hard times. Enter into God’s anointing of glad giving and see if he disappoints you in return.

I have never met a generous giver who said, “I am dissatisfied with God’s blessings in my life. I feel short changed by the Lord. I want my money back!” God delivers.

Mike Pilavachi, pastor of Soul Survivor, often talks about his own struggles in the area of faith and finances; and he used to be an accountant! I remember him talking once about the summer of 2000. He used to write a little piece every other month at that time for Christianity magazine. In July that year Soul Survivor was just about to launch a huge mission in Manchester. With weeks to go he was told, “Mike, we are hundreds of thousands of pounds short. Soul Survivor is days away from collapse.”

And so he thought, “This is it. This is the end of the ministry.” That same day in July was the deadline day for his article for the September edition of Christianity magazine. So, feeling very depressed and dejected, he sat down and started his column with these words: “By the time you read this, Soul Survivor will be bankrupt. The question I want to ask is ‘why’. Is it because of my sin? Is it that God withdrew his hand because I got proud? Is it because we just didn’t listen to him? I don’t know why.” And then he finished off the piece with a few platitudes and generally encouraging spiritual thoughts and then sent it off to the editors.

Within three weeks the Lord miraculously provided everything they needed. Every penny. From the jaws of insolvency Soul Survivor completely turned round and, what’s more, God abundantly blessed the mission in Manchester with many people converted and people healed on the streets. And people were going up to Mike Pilavachi and saying things like, “Mike, how do you do it? You’re just so full of faith. You step out boldly in the direst of straits and God delivers, you’re amazing!” And I love the way Mike tells the story, he would reply, “Well, I think it’s a gift from the Lord really. You know, what God orders he always pays for!” And just as he was considering writing a book on faith and finances - guess what? They published the September edition of Christianity magazine!

Now, my guess is that this whole theme is extremely challenging for some of us. Research done in the 1990s revealed that, in evangelical churches, 20% of the people cover 80% of the budget. 30% pay for the rest and 50% give nothing. My hunch is that All Saints’ is much healthier than that and that we buck the trend. I say it’s a hunch because you should know that I make it a point of principle, as a church leader, to never access the information on who gives what so as to avoid any partiality. But I would guess that in all likelihood some of you are sitting here listening to this and taking a deep breath and thinking, “Oh my” because money, more than anything else, is the area in which you most struggle to have great faith.

So some of you might be saying, “What is God saying here? Can I afford this? What should my giving look like? How much should I be giving?” 10%? Whoa! That’s impossible! Remember the widow in Mark’s Gospel? How much did she give? “Everything she had to live on”, says Jesus, who commended her for it. He didn’t say, “How irresponsible, how is she going to pay the gas bill now?” Everything she had; her salary, her housekeeping, her benefits, her retirement plan, her savings, her stocks and shares and her pocket money – the lot! C.S. Lewis wrote: “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.” God says here, in v9, “You are robbing me” if you give anything less than a tenth of your earnings.

2) Giving from the Heart

Yes, but isn’t this Old Testament living? Aren’t we free from a mandatory 10% tax on faith? Didn’t Jesus do away with the Law of Moses? Some of you might be saying to yourselves, “If I’m a Christian, why should I have to give away a tithe?” Or put it another way, “If I’m a Christian, am I, like the Israelites in Malachi 3, under a curse if I don’t?” After all, tithing is part of the Old Covenant which no Christian is bound by because Jesus has fulfilled it. Isn’t that right? Giving ten per cent as a legal obligation or requirement or duty was abolished when Jesus gave 100% on the cross wasn’t it?

Yes, absolutely. We live under grace and not under law. I actually think tithing is one of the great secrets of living under God’s blessing. I have never earned big money but I can testify to God’s abundant provision whenever I have done so – and much more so than when I haven’t. I recommend it absolutely. But I want to say also that there is no compulsion from God over this. The New Testament angle on this is “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9.7) Under Christ you are free to tithe. The difference is that under Moses you were not free not to tithe.

Under Christ everything you have is his and the more you give away, without counting, the more he seems to bless you - without counting. Under the Law of Moses everyone went around calculator getting the maths just right. They spent their weekends weighing the apples that they picked from the garden so they could give away exactly 1.2 kilos of the 120 kilos they collected. That is emphatically not what it’s about.

This is what Jesus commented on in our second reading. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices - mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”

The Pharisees tithed meticulously and methodically. But Jesus said they were under condemnation, that’s what “woe” means, it’s a curse. Their tithe was just mechanical. Terry was saying last week that you can’t love without giving but you can give without loving. These guys were giving without loving. They were the epitome of evangelical exactness but their hearts were cold and their devotion was centred on their own righteousness and self importance. They were faultless in giving 10.000% of their payslip, their grants, their benefits, their bonuses and every window box herb - but they were unmoved by the kids next door who had nothing to eat because their father had died last year. God deliver us from mathematical exactness and stone faced indifference.

So yes, I want to say that Jesus did fulfil the Law. In this age of grace we are no longer under its curse. Jesus, in his innocent life, his incomparable passion, his glorious death and almighty resurrection, has taken the curse upon him, has paid the price in full, has defeated the powers of darkness, has cancelled the written code that was against us and has opened the way to know God as Father. Wow! What a God he is!

Will our spontaneous response to him under grace be poorer and stingier than under law? Surely more grace and less law should result in abundant generosity that goes beyond mathematical calculations? How could living under grace ever result in half-hearted, close-fisted, self-centred lifestyles?

Let me give you an example - this is a true story - of what giving looks like under grace. Kathie and I know a couple who are planting an underground house church in the Muslim world. I’ll call them Marie and Hassam. One day, they needed a sudden cash injection of $1,000 for their ministry. So they contacted some Christian friends in the USA, Bill and Sue, asking them to consider loaning them that sum. The reply was “Yes,” but it came with a condition. The condition was that they would not pay the money back when they had the means to do so but instead they must pass it on to someone else who needed it, stipulating the same condition; that the money be moved on somewhere else in the kingdom of God instead of reimbursed. A few months later, Hassam received an unexpected productivity bonus from the bank he worked for of... $1000. So the money was passed on to someone else in need, who in turn blessed someone else when they had the means to do so, and so it went on. The gift kept on multiplying as God blessed the spirit of generosity in his people with overflowing blessing and plenteous surprises.

Did Bill and Sue reckon that $1000 as an obligatory tithe? No. They are not under the Law. They are free from it. They are under grace. Everything they have is God’s. They joyfully released that money and set up a virtuous chain that brought blessing to many and great gladness to them.

God’s economy does not work like the world’s. The world’s economy booms and then busts in cycles that last about 12 years. It is affected by interest rates and fiscal policy. But God’s economy expands through faith and love, and contracts through unbelief and selfishness. It runs on childlike trust in God’s provision and holy joy.

Ending

So, to end, let me commend giving in All Saints’ as a worthy investment.

What might God do if every earning person would tithe and seek ways of radical liberality? The work of God would accelerate so fast you’d feel the G-force! As it is, giving here releases resources for youth and children’s work. Over the last year we have had to sit down and ask ourselves “How are we going to cope with the record numbers of young people we are getting at 360?” Just last year we had to move Big Ted to two mornings because it was full. Now both mornings are full. Some of the parents from there are doing Journeys and Alpha courses. There were so many old folk at the Lunch Club service last week we didn’t have room for them. And there’s so much more. We can hardly keep up! That has happened because God has been good to us and because people have given joyfully and open-handedly.

We’ve planted Alan and Nicky out at Stockton. We’ve invested the lions’ share of our curacy ministry out there too because God has given us so much here and we believe we’ve got to give it away. Just over a decade ago Long Newton was a dead duck, now they’re getting geared up to invite the village to healing services and bring the gospel into the village pub. I was there this morning and it is now a vibrant community of faith. I believe God has more blessing to pour out on this locality and I believe he will continue to use us in that.

God is on the move. He has graciously stretched out his hand and healed the sick, some of whom had no hope. In the short time I’ve been here I’ve seen people delivered of demons too. The Lord has added to the church new people from the last Alpha course. The kingdom is advancing. This is an exciting time and I believe there’s much, much more to come.

“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. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land.”


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 18th January 2009

The Grace of Giving (2 Corinthians 8.1-7)

Introduction

A ship breaks up in a storm and only two survivors make it to a desert island. The first man starts to shout and scream and wave his arms. Help, help! We’re going to die!” he says. The second man just sits down calmly under a coconut tree and watches the waves lap against the shore... which makes the other guy even more irate. “We’re going to die here and you just sit there like a lemon looking at the beach?” So the second man says, “Listen. I earn 100,000 a month. There is no way we’re going to die here.” So the first guy says, “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. We are marooned. We are miles from anywhere. And you talk of your pay cheque? It isn’t much good here is it?” So the second guy says, “I give 10% to the church. Don’t worry about it, my pastor will find me!”

For 2009 I wish you health, happiness and prosperity - and I mean that - but most of all I pray that this new year will inaugurate, for each of us here, me included, twelve months of growth in the knowledge and love of God, who is the source of all blessing and the author of all that endures.

It’s customary to wish people a prosperous new year – as I just did – so it is fitting that the teaching theme for first three weeks of this year here at All Saints’ is money. Actually, I wished you a happy new year as well and it seems there is a link between money and happiness. Every wit has had their bit to say on the subject; American stand-up comedian Henry Youngman, said, “What's the use of happiness? It can't buy you money.” Spike Milligan put it this way; “Money can't buy happiness, but it can get you a more pleasant form of misery!” And Bo Derek gave another (perhaps more feminine) perspective on the issue when she said, “Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping!”

The Bible links money and happiness in that the word “contentment” occurs seven times in Scripture, and six times out of seven the context is money. How many fabulously rich people do you know who are truly, deeply content? We know what the writer and poet Dorothy Parker meant when she said, “If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.”

Nevertheless, common expressions like “dirty money” and “money can’t buy you love” have left their mark on our thinking. Somehow it doesn’t seem quite right to be talking about it in church. But God has lots to say about money. Jesus spoke more about money than he did about salvation, heaven and hell combined – and some of his most important teaching was on money.

It was Jesus who said that the most accurate gauge of our spiritual fitness is our attitude towards money; “For where your treasure is there will your heart also be.” (Matthew 6.21). It was Jesus who said that those who are ready to handle the kingdom of God are those who have learned to manage their personal finances. This is what he said; “If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?”(Luke 16.11).

This is why people who don’t manage on their budget, or who hoard for themselves everything they earn, or who squander their pay packets on frivolities or who never save a penny will never be giants in faith. You see how important this is? It’s not as if we are taking a short break from the spiritual in our preaching, to flirt with the profane, and that we will return to more worthy things at the end of the month. If you want to grow in Christ, if you want to do great things for God, it starts with mundane things like your bank statement and your purse.

Besides, money is an urgent theme for other reasons. If this congregation today is representative of the citizens of our country most of us here owe money – lots of it. According to the Daily Telegraph in April 2008, average household debt in the UK, excluding mortgages, was £8,680. Credit Action puts the figure today at £9,600.

The Bible has things to say about debt and about how to earn money, how to spend it well, how to invest it wisely. God wants us to know his mind about how to saving and budgeting as well as giving and you know why? It’s because our approach to money, perhaps more than our approach to anything else, will have the greatest direct bearing on our spiritual heath. In most cultures, most of the time, money is the greatest idol. That’s why Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matthew 6.24).

The Famine of 46-47AD

So over the next few weeks we’re going to be thinking about what the Bible has to say not just about money but about grace and the generous heart. And we’re going to consider the great return that awaits those who give joyfully, simply and generously. So let’s turn our eyes now to this exciting and moving passage in 2 Corinthians, chapter 8.

First of all, in order to help us understand the issues here, let’s get up to speed with the background. Acts 11.28 records a prophecy given by a man named Agabus announcing a serious famine that would blight the entire Mediterranean world and independent historical records confirm the Bible’s testimony. In the year 47, during the reign of the Emperor Claudius, the famine struck. It’s one of the most documented historical events in the New Testament. You can read more in Acts 11, 1 Corinthians 16 and Romans 15, besides here in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

Some areas of the Roman Empire had sufficient reserves to survive the food shortages, but others, in particular the province of Judea, (that is to say the area surrounding Jerusalem) did not. They were severely hit by the disaster and many people were suddenly faced with hunger and starvation.

2 Corinthians 8 and 9 are all about the collection of money that was organised by churches all over the Roman world to bring relief to Judean Christians facing very grave shortages.

When Paul wrote these words, the churches to the north of Greece, (that is to say in Macedonia), had already been contributing to the needs of the famished Jerusalem Christians. “They gave as much as they were able” he says in v3, which sounds generous. In fact, it was more than generous, it was sacrificial, as the verse goes on to say, they gave “beyond their ability.”

Let’s make no mistake about these people’s acute hardship. Verse 2 describes “their extreme poverty in the midst of a very severe trial.” But what a response! Paul writes about their “overflowing joy welling up in rich generosity.” Now it was time for other churches to the south, like Corinth, to show some solidarity and play their part too and that is why Paul writes to them.

What is really interesting here is that the Apostle Paul doesn’t deal with this matter as if it were a worldly trifle or an administrative detail. Not at all! For him, as for the Lord Jesus himself, giving was, and is, a key spiritual issue. We’re going to note 4 reasons why giving is so important.

1) Generous Giving Magnifies God’s Amazing Grace

Firstly, generous giving magnifies God’s amazing grace. For Paul here, giving eloquently displays our great satisfaction in God’s immeasurable generosity towards us. So when we start reading about the gracious, open-handed, cheerful giving of the Christians in Macedonia we read first of God’s untold goodness and endless kindness towards them which precedes it. Behind the big hearts of the Macedonian believers was God’s much bigger heart and his sovereign grace. Grace and generosity mean essentially the same thing. Our God is a generous God because he is a gracious God. He gives freely and he forgives without measure. He pours out gifts. And he is at work in the hearts of those who love him so that they give more in turn.

2) Generous Giving is a Fantastic Privilege

Secondly, generous giving is a fantastic privilege. Let’s try and imagine what a conversation between Paul and the Macedonian believers might have looked like. “Now look here,” says Paul. “You are so deprived y
ourselves... I would be embarrassed to even mention this to you. Don’t even think about putting your hands in your pockets. Let’s be sensible, and make an exception for you.” But v4 tells us that they insisted vociferously on giving even though their kitchen cupboard was bare. Paul says in v4, “They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people”. They literally begged to be given the opportunity to be able to give something. That would be such a privilege for them, such an honour, and they did so earnestly and with unrestrained delight. Why should having nothing be an insurmountable obstacle to giving?

What blessing there is in being able to say, “O give me the chance to express something, anything, of my gratitude to God for his great mercy towards me.” One of my children, at the age of about 5 or 6, spontaneously gave all their pocket money to a beggar they saw in the street. I remember them doing it. I remember how they walked past, then stopped, then emptied their pockets into their little hands, turned, and tipped every last penny into the man’s cup. Everett Dirksen, a former Senator of Illinois once said, “A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” But that child, only just at school, gave real money that day. I was so moved. The grace and goodness of God is so strong in their life to this day..!

3) Generous Giving Blesses the Giver

...Which brings me to the third thing. In v7 Paul says, “See that you excel in this grace of giving.” “This grace of giving” means that generous giving blesses the giver as well as the recipient. A friend of mine, when she was a student, felt that she should put her last banknote in the offering one night, knowing that she would have nothing left to live on for the next ten days. She thought, “I’m only young once. This will be fun. Let’s see what God does now.” The following evening she arrived home to find an unexpected cheque in the post. God’s economy is not subject to the usual laws of supply and demand. It responds (with interest) to the stimuli of joyful big-heartedness and adventurous faith.

If you give back to God what belongs to him he will undertake to pour out on you an overabundant blessing that outstrips your gift on every scale of measuring. God says so. “Test me in this” says God, “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. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit. Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land, says the Lord Almighty” in Malachi 3.

It’s the only place in the Bible where God invites anyone to test him on any matter. “Come on,” he says, “you can on this one.” The promise of God here, it seems to me, is clear and beyond dispute. God stakes his honour on it. If I give away the first fruits of my wealth, liberally, selflessly, freely and generously, with joy in my heart, then God will undertake to fill me with spiritual blessings and will see to it personally that I will never lack anything I need to live.

The passage from Malachi is about the tithe; the giving of the first tenth to God, which has been a useful rule of thumb for many Christians – and it has at times in my own life. But I need to say that the tithe is part of the Law of Moses and, as such, is not compulsory in the New Covenant. Most church treasurers keep quiet about that! But Jesus fulfilled this Law by giving, not 10, but 100% at the cross and in doing that he abolished forever the mandatory 10% tax on faith. That’s Old Testament living. For us, since we are infinitely blessed by the uncountable riches of God’s grace in Christ, all we have is God’s and we are free to give back to him much more than a tithe - as every church treasurer will happily affirm!

4) Generous Giving is More than Money

Fourthly, giving is about money. But giving is more than just money. Look at v5. Speaking again about the Macedonian Christians Paul says, “They went beyond our expectations; having given themselves first of all to the Lord, they gave themselves by the will of God also to us.” They gave... themselves. That is to say their time, their gifts, their experience, their service. Everything was made available to God (first) and then to Paul and his team.

Giving is about all of life. So some questions: Do I give joyfully and freely of my money to promote the work of the Gospel and to support the weak to the glory of God? Am I satisfied that I put to use the spiritual gifts God has given me for the building up of the Body of Christ? Do I offer my time gladly so that the kingdom of God can advance? Could I do more?

Speaking personally, I can. I can do much more and this passage is a real challenge for me. I can fan into flame the gifts God has placed in me. I can spend more time investing in the kingdom through intercessory prayer. I can give more. Kathie and I usually review our giving at the beginning of each year. We haven’t sat down and done it yet but we make it our aim to give away more and more each year. We are so happy and we have been so blessed. Lord, increase my faith to test you again in my finances! Challenge me once more on using my free time, and releasing the gifts that you have so kindly entrusted to me!

I mention spiritual gifts, and the recipients of this letter in Corinth were spiritual gift champions. They spoke in tongues (a lot), they prophesied, they were passionate about the gift of faith and zealous for words of knowledge and wisdom. All that is good. I want to see more, not less, of the ministry of the Holy Spirit here. I want us to shine in spiritual gift excellence. I say that because Paul, in fact, commends it in v6; “But since you excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you - see that you also excel in this grace (or gift) of giving.”

Every Christian is called by God to witness, though some are gifted as evangelists. Every Christian is called by God to care for others, though some have a gift for pastoral ministry. In the same way, every Christian is called by God to a life of generosity but some, and usually those who are blessed with significant financial resources, have a spiritual gift of giving.

Dennis Bakke is a successful American businessman, who is also Bill Clinton’s golfing partner. Dennis is a Christian believer who puts 95% of his salary into a trust called the Mustard Seed Foundation to finance evangelism, church planting and relief projects around the world. He has a spiritual gift of giving. Some might say, “Well it’s alright for him, he can afford it.” Maybe, but how many people on his income would live in a modest house and drive a second hand Ford like he does? That really is a gift...

Ending

To finish, I want to encourage you to ask God here this morning, or perhaps when you get home later, “Lord, how do you want me to express the grace of giving in my life this year? What gifts have you given me that lie dormant? Lord, I want to offer back to you the first fruits of all you have given me (not under compulsion or through guilt, but joyfully and freely). How much should that be this year, Lord? How much time do you want me to free up specifically for serving you gladly in your church? In all my giving, Lord, let your kingdom come in this place and in your world.”

Let’s be ambitious in asking God to pour out a spirit of grace and generosity upon us here at All Saints.’ “It is more blessed to give than to receive” said Jesus, and since he gave everything, he knew what he was talking about.

Finally, this; I don’t know who gives what here and I make it a principle never to access that kind of information. But if you should ever find yourself marooned on a desert island, I want you to know that I will do everything I can to come and find you!


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 4th January 2009