I remember speaking to a friend and church member when we are at a different church, and he confided in me the secret struggle his wife was having with alcohol, and the toll that it was taking on him and his children.  She wasn’t even aware of the way her “couple of drinks” as she called it, was effecting the rest of the family.  It was deeply effecting them, so much so that the husband was making excuses why they couldn’t attend functions at night.  He was embarrassed by her drinking and knew it wasn’t good for their children.  Her actions were destroying the life of this family.  When one family member is unhealthy, it effects the rest of the members of that family.

There is a lie floating around our culture that says, “What I do by myself, in my own time won’t hurt anyone else.”  This is a lie.  Your immediate family is deeply effected by decisions you make and by prayers you pray.  Your church family, to a slightly lesser degree, is deeply effected by decisions you make.  This is true for our covenant family at Trinity.  There is a tie between us, that unites us and causes us to comfort and encourage one another in times of need.  This covenant tie also brings God’s blessings on all of us– when one member is praying and seeking and being used by God, it touches and effects the other members of the body.  I was reflecting on this last week as Don Stephens was staying at our house.  He filled his schedule by spending time with his family here at Trinity, and I would bet anything that being around Don for several hours effected those of you who spent time with him, and as you effected others with truth which Don spoke into your life, they too were effected.  The converse is also true though– when one member is walking deeply in sin, it will effect the rest of us on some level.  Our culture is so individualistic in mentality that this biblical concept is hard for us to grasp and believe, but it is true!

We are preaching a second sermon this morning on “Stewardship: A Way of Life.”   Over half of you have attended one of our elder group meetings so you understand what the Lord has laid on the hearts of your leadership.  We believe that God is doing a work in us as a body and we are seeking to be obedient to what we believe the Lord has asked us to do as your leaders in the whole realm of stewardship.  The principle I just introduced to you about how our personal decisions effect the rest of the body of Christ also applies to stewardship.  The Lord works through His people corporately, bringing blessing or judgement upon them all as they respond to the Word of the Lord. 

I. God looks at both the heart of an individual and the heart of a corporate body.

In Malachi, the Lord is speaking to Israel.  He declares that the whole nation is under a curse, under condemnation because of the way they were keeping for themselves the tithes and offerings the Lord had asked from them.  The Lord gave to them the provision so that they could, in turn, give it back by faith to the Lord and provide for the temple and ministries which were to take place there.  In the O.T. system and structure, the Levites, the tribe who were priests, were given no inheritance of land.  Land meant wealth.  If you owned land, then you could raise crops and feed animals on that land, and produce wealth.  The priests were completely dependent upon the Lord moving the hearts of the people to provide for their needs, because they were given no land.  The people of God were robbing God– the tithe is His!  Their sin was deeply effecting the ministry in the temple.

Now, what I want to ask is this: Was there anyone in the nation of Israel who was giving their tithes and offerings in obedience to the Lord?  The whole nation receives the curse, but do you think there was a faithful remnant in their midst?  I believe there was, because every place through the history of Israel, even in the midst of the worst times when Ahab and Jezebel ruled, the Lord kept a remnant for Himself– a certain number of faithful people who had worshiped the Lord with their whole hearts.  I believe that this was true of this moment in history too.  Notice though that the whole nation is under the judgement of God.

Many times through the Scriptures, the nation is judged by God because of the sin of most of the people, some of the people or even a few people.  Do you remember the passage in Genesis 18 when Abraham is pleading for the city of Sodom, and asks the Lord if He will wipe out the city if there are 50 righteous people in it. The Lord is angry because of the incredible sin which is taking place in the city.  But if there are 50 righteous people in the city, the Lord will spare it.  Abraham continues to intercede for the people in the city, even though the vast majority of them are unrighteous, and moves God Himself to pity so that if there are even 10 righteous people in the city, He will not wipe it out.  God knows already there are not 10 righteous people left there, so judgement falls and Sodom is annihilated.  The few righteous people are wiped out beside the horde of unrighteous.

Or how about when Achan sinned in Joshua 7.  Do you remember this story?  Achan sinned by stealing some of the foreign gods and hiding them under his tent, even though all of Israel knew that this was coraban– devoted to God.  Achan thought it wouldn’t make a difference and the foreign gods would profit him and his family.  Because of this man’s sin, the whole nation of Israel lost the next battle in the city of Ai.  When Joshua inquired before the Lord as to why the Lord had not done as He had promised He would do and go before them into battle, the Lord said the problem was that there was “sin in the camp.”  As Joshua asked, the Lord showed Joshua the source of the sin, and Achan and his family were put to death by the Lord.  From this point on, the Lord went before the people of God again and they won every battle. 

The point in each of these stories is that the Lord blessed and judged the covenant people as a group, as a community.  In all of these stories and many others we could look at, the sin of some adversely effected the whole community.  My sin does effect the community.  So does your sin.  I believe the Lord is calling us all, as a people, individually and corporately, to obey Him, no matter what the cost to our reputation or our wallet or our time or our energy.  There is a cost to building the Kingdom of God.  We labor side by side, doing those things the Lord has put in our hands to do.  We all give by faith, each one according to his or her ability from their time, their talents and their finances.  As this happens, God does a great work through His people.

The biblical picture of the church is the Lord at the head, speaking through and leading the leadership of the covenant community, causing a change in the hearts and actions of the leadership, and then the people of God hearing what God has spoken to the leadership, seeing it displayed in their lives, and then responding themselves to the Lord in a similar manner.  There is not a shadow of doubt in my mind that the Lord has spoken clearly to your session.  We have tried to be obedient to that gentle rebuke He has given to us– I confessed this to you all 2 weeks ago, how the session had not clearly led, taught or modeled stewardship for this people– and we have set about to correct that.  This is why we have asked the people of God at Trinity to read the book, The Treasure Principle, and to hold smaller meetings with each of you.  I went to all 11 elder group meetings, because I felt the need to look people in the face as we talked about where our heart should be– where our treasure is, our heart will also be.  The Lord doesn’t need your money– it is no big deal for Him to supply any financial resource; but the Lord is after your whole heart.  I fear that it has become easy in American Christianity to live a self centered lifestyle, with very little faith, and still be seen as a core member of a church.  I believe the Lord has bigger things in store for Trinity, ways He wants to pour out more life and blessing through this church, but that won’t happen until He gets the heart of all our family members.  Every one of you is important to the Lord and important to us.  We long for every one of you to be challenged in your faith, and to have conviction in your heart of hearts as to what the Lord would have you do in stewardship.  “I have prayed this through and I have spent time on my face seeking the Lord and His heart, His will for me, and this is what I know He has asked me to give away.”  As the people of God respond to the Lord in this way, there is no doubt in my mind that they will experience a greater measure of joy than they have ever experienced before, and that the Lord will supply every need for them and for us as a body.  As I shared in the opening illustration, we need every one in this family to respond to this call from the Lord.

II. There is judgement on those who disobey God and blessing is promised to those who completely obey.

In our culture, people think they can get away with things.  With humans, this is often true.  I still remember the time my mom ran out to the store.  I had been outside with a friend when she left.  We saw this as a good opportunity to get something good to eat, so rummaged around the kitchen until we found marshmallows.  No sooner had we jammed a handful into our mouths and in walks my mom.  She got back a lot quicker than I ever dreamed she would!  “Hey mom!” I tried to say with a mouthful of marshmallows.  I was caught with the evidence in my mouth.  But, sometimes we can get away with things with people.  Not with God– there is nothing you can do to hide your sin.  God will judge justly in every circumstance.  I am not worried about justice being meted out to those who have done me wrong in the past.  I am concerned about how I will stand up under the judgement of God.  I know all my sin is under the blood of Jesus, I am His child and will enjoy eternity worshiping my Lord.  But, even as Christians, we will have to give an account before the Lord for our words, actions and motives, in light of the truth which was given to us.  This applies to every area of our lives, and the way we have stewarded what the Lord has entrusted to us.

There are many angles to look at stewardship.  Even if you think about stewardship in light of what you will get out of it in this world, listen to what the Lord spoke over His people in Haggai 1:5‑6, “Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways.  You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”  The people of God had spent the provisions the Lord supplied to rebuild the temple to build up their own houses.  The Lord is calling on them to change their ways, meaning repent.  The other option is for them to continue to never be satisfied– this passage appeals to this life and what you receive.

Now, consider the promises the Lord gives to us.  God gives a wonderful promise to those who obey Him by bringing the whole tithe into the storehouse so that He is honored.  He tells His people that He will pour out so much blessing that they will not have enough room to hold it all.  God will keep pests from destroying the crops and vines from casting their fruit so that it is destroyed.  I don’t believe there is a 1-1 correspondence to these kind of things.  “Okay Lord, I gave You back Your tithe this morning– how long until you fill up my storehouse?”  We simply give by faith and trust that the Lord will provide for us in His time and in His way.  He will bless us in His perfect time and in a way He has decided in best.  Everything I have is His anyway.  He can make things not wear out– like the sandals of the Israelites as they walked through the wilderness for forty years!  Or He can cause crops to multiply or loaves and fish to multiply or oil not to run out.  He can cause people to give you money or you could find money in the mouth of a fish!  God can make the axe head float or bread fall from heaven.  The ways God provides are endless, and the source is magnificent!  Let Him be praised!

If these biblical examples are not enough for you, I have a couple of real live examples: Bette Cox and Avie Rainwater...

The heart of your elders is this: study the Scriptures so that you have a heart conviction about what He would have you give away to the church and offerings to others.  Each time you are paid, ask the Lord what He would have you do with the money He has provided for you.  Part of the vision we have for Trinity in the years to come is that we would be a mother church to several daughter churches, both here and overseas.  One of the things that excited me so much about Robby Hamd’s ministry, for those of you who heard his excellent testimony and teaching during the Sunday School hour last week, is his vision for Trinity and other churches to partner with him in planting churches in Lebanon.  They won’t be EPC churches, but will belong to our sister denomination in Lebanon, which is good.  It costs money to prepare and send missionaries and to plant churches.