The Blessed Life - A Heart to Serve

This Thursday is Thanksgiving and I want to invite you to take some time this week to write down a few things for which you are thankful thanks.  Even when we face problems with our health, finances, jobs, and relationships, we can still look around and see many good things for which we are grateful.  We are blessed, and we need to identify these blessings and give thanks for all we have, but we have been talking this month about how a blessed life isn’t just found in what we have received, but when we give.  Jesus said, it is more blessed to GIVE than to RECEIVE.  The true blessing of God doesn’t come from all that we have received in life, but all the ways God shows us that we can give to Him and to others. 

We have looked at different ways of giving, and when we think of giving we often think about giving our money, or a portion of our wealth and resources, but today we want to shift from thinking about money to another way of giving that Jesus says will bless us in life.  To do this, we are going to look at a story found in John 13.

To set the scene, the disciples were together for a meal and while it wasn’t Thanksgiving dinner, it might as well have been.  It was the Passover meal, which means it was the most important meal of the year.  Families would travel from all over Israel to come to Jerusalem for the Passover, just as many of us will travel to be with family this coming week. 

As the disciples gathered for the meal, each one of them walked by the place set aside for a servant to wash the feet of the guests.  The problem was that there was no servant that day, and not one disciple wanted to stop and wash their own feet, let alone the feet of the others.  So they gathered at the table with dirty feet. 

To imagine what this might be like, imagine everyone at your Thanksgiving table has just gathered together after a nice long walk through a field - filled with cow manure - that no one saw in time - and no one bothered to clean or take off their shoes when they came in.  Or imagine that your teenage son has invited everyone from his soccer team to join you for dinner and they all show up after a long practice, in their soccer clothes, and they have taken off their shoes.  The place would have smelled and the disciple’s dirty feet wouldn’t have been tucked under the table because they were all reclining at a low table, which means that Peter’s feet were close to the noses of James and John, and Andrew’s foot was in the face of Thomas. 

Imagine the aroma of roast lamb mixed with manure, or the aroma of roast turkey and sweat socks.  It would not have been pleasant, and yet no one wanted to be the one to do something about it.  They all walked right by the basin and towel.  They could smell the problem, but no one wanted to do anything about it, and this is where we pick up the story: John 13:4-17. 

You will be blessed if you do them.  The blessed life comes not by waiting to be served but by being willing to serve.  Jesus makes clear that he did not come as the Son of Man to be served but to serve, and he said that we will find life, a blessed life, if we will shift our attitude and perspective from being served to being the one who serves others.  A blessed life comes from a heart that is set on serving and while serving others might not be second nature to us, we can train our hearts to beat for service. 

The first thing we can do to develop a heart of service is to ask God to open our eyes so that we can see ways to serve.  We talked about this last week when we talked about spontaneous giving.  All around us are ways we can give to others, we just have to be able to see the opportunities, and the same is true with serving.  All around us are ways we can serve others, and if we can see them, and then act on them, we train our hearts for service. 

The first place we need to look is at home. Can we see ways to serve our own family? Sometimes it is those closest to us that we overlook.  Do we see our children needing love, inspiration, and support?  Do we see our parents needing time and care as they get older?  Do we see the changing needs of our spouse?  As we gather with family this week, let’s ask God to show us how we can serve those around the table, and those in our family. 
Beyond our family, can we see the needs of our friends, and those we work with?  What needs do we see in our schools and community?  My first week as a pastor in Lewisburg, a woman asked me after worship where the children who got free lunches ate during the summer when there was no school.  I wasn’t sure how to get to the grocery store myself - I had no idea what the answer was.  Was this a need?  Was this something the church had been talking about?  I had no idea, but her question led us to look for some answers. 

We found out there was no lunch program for kids during the summer, but there was a community center that served lunch to many children and youth in the community who needed help.  We started providing lunch for them one day a week.  Do you know that in Bellefonte there are 115 elementary school children who are given backpacks with food in them so that they will have something to eat at home on the weekends?  I can tell you that those who help fill those backpacks are blessed because they are serving.

We need to ask God to help us see ways we can serve and making lists of service opportunities can help keep our eyes open.  Seeing is only the first step, however, the second step is to stand up.  In John 13 it says that Jesus got up from the table.  He stood up to do something.  He didn’t just see - or smell - the need, he acted, and there we see that moment of decision that is important in all of our lives.  Great ideas and good intentions are nothing without follow through, so we need to learn how to stand up when we see a need.

One way to motivate ourselves to stand up is to commit to serving someone in some way every week.  If we commit to doing something on a consistent basis and plan to do it, we will be more likely to act.  Can we make a commitment this week to meet one need when we see it?  Can we commit to serving our family in one new way on Thanksgiving?  Can we commit to serving a neighbor or friend in one way over this holiday weekend?  We learn to stand up by simply standing up. 
Another way to help us stand up and serve is to ask others to help us.  If you know someone who is serving at the food bank - ask if you can join them.  Know someone who volunteers at the Faith Centre?  Ask if you can go with them.  Want to serve here at the church? Let us know and we will work to get you standing up and serving.  While asking others to help us serve is one thing, we also need to be bold and invite people to serve with us

I am very good at procrastinating and telling myself that now is not the right time to serve, or I don’t have the right skills to help, so I need people who will be bold and ask to serve with them.  I also need people to hold me accountable to serving by asking me how and where and when I am serving others.  Too often we are like the disciples sitting around the table thinking someone else will get up and do it, or it is someone else’s job, when all the time God is asking us to stand up. 

The third thing we see in Jesus is that he was willing to stoop down.  He stood up to act but then he literally had to get down on one knee, or both knees to wash the feet of his disciples.  The one to whom all knees will eventually bow to in humility, is the one who is stooping down to do the dirty work.   He did the job that no one else wanted to do.  He picked up a towel and basin, the tools used by the lowest servant in the household, and went to work.  A heart of service stoops down to work in ways that others may not want to - but that work and service, Jesus says, brings a blessed life. 

There was a real servant like this here at Faith Church.  After going through a group study on the purpose driven life, she said that after a lot of thought, she came up with the idea that her purpose was doing the jobs that other people didn’t want to do.  She said that she couldn’t play the piano or sing, and she didn’t think she was a great cook like her good friend Jane Shuey, but she did like washing dishes.  She enjoyed cutting up all those labels that the UMW collected for missions.  She came in early on Saturday to set up communion, and on Sunday to set up coffee for her Sunday School class.  She called to check on people others often overlooked, and she sent cards to people that she knew and those she didn’t know.  She also served at Centre Crest where she didn’t wash feet, she washed the resident’s hair. 

In very quiet ways, Betty McDonell did those things that others didn’t want to do.  She served and blessed all of us, but if you knew Betty then you know she would be first the one to say that she was blessed by serving.

Stooping down to serve often means doing those things that no one else wants to do and being willing to get dirty and learn humility.  My very first job in the church was as a leader in my high school youth group.  My job was called house and transportation committee, and the committee was me.  It was my job to line up transportation for all our youth events, but I also had to make sure that every time youth group was over, no matter where we were, that we left the place cleaner than we found it.  While I tried to get everyone on board with cleaning bathrooms, it didn’t always work, so I would clean up after our group.  For a year I learned to serve and do those jobs that no one else wanted to do. 

Many times as a pastor I have learned that stooping down to serve is part of the true blessing of ministry - and I do mean blessing.  My life has been blessed.  I’ve cleaned toilets, cleaned up after people who have been sick, and even cleaned up my neighbor’s house after she passed away at home and the first responders left with everything pretty chaotic.  I have taken people to the ER, helped clean up after parishioner’s dogs, and yes, even carried a dead dog out of a woman’s house when the dog died in the living room and needed to be taken away.  You just learn to do what needs to be done, and I have learned that with each experience, I am more blessed by serving.  I know that what I have done has been helpful, but as I look back on all of those experiences I realize that I am the one who has been blessed when I have been willing to stoop down and serve. 

If we can let go of our pride, or position, and seeking out those places of importance, and stand up to help and stoop down to serve - we will be blessed.  In this season of the year, there are always opportunities for us to stand up and stoop down.  I want to invite you to stand up to serve - not literally - but make the commitment today to serve in some intentional way during this next month. 
(See Next Steps)

We all have good intentions of giving our time and serving others during the Christmas Season, but the busyness of the season can eat up all our time and wipe away all our good intentions.  Stand up now and commit to serving, and then ask someone to hold you accountable to doing it.  Commit now to serving and invite someone to serve with you.  Nothing will bless your life more

Jesus said, I have given you an example of service and you will be blessed if you do it.  We will experience the blessed life when we develop a genuine heart of service that helps us see the needs, stand up to help, and stoop down to serve. 


Next Steps
The Blessed Life - A Heart of Service

I am thankful for:


1. See the need
Ask God to show you the needs of:
● Your family
● Your friends
● Your neighbors
● Your coworkers
● Your community
● Your church

When you see a need, write it down.  Create a journal or list of needs to train your eyes and heart to see the needs of others.  Share the list with someone.

2. Stand Up
I commit today to standing up to do something to serve.
● Here is one way I can serve this week of Thanksgiving:

● Here is one way I can serve in this season of Advent and Christmas:

3. Stoop Down
Pray for the humility to serve in ways that no one else wants to serve.  Read John 13:1-17 and Philippians 2:1-18. 
Ask God for a heart that is willing to serve others in humility. 

Who has humbled themselves to serve you? Use this example to inspire you to be humble and serve others.

The Blessed Life - A Generous Eye

This month we are talking about how we can experience a blessed life and grow in the rhythms of generosity and blessing and we come back each week to the words of Jesus who said, it is more blessed to GIVE than to RECEIVE.  Last week we talked about a system of giving called the tithe that helps us make sure that money has not taken hold of our hearts.  The truth is that the only way to grow in our giving and our generosity is to find ways to give more, so today we are going to look at three different ways we can give and how each of them can help us give more and therefore experience more of God’s blessing. 

My sophomore year of college, a friend and I were headed to CT from MSU and our train stopped in NYC where we spent the day.  We didn’t have any plans, we just visited stores like Macy’s, FAO Schwarz toy store, and Tiffany's.  It was December and it was a grey, cold, and windy day.  As you might imagine, we saw many homeless people on the streets but there was one woman who caught my attention.  She was huddled between two buildings trying to get out of the wind and I would have said she was old, because she had grey hair (might not say that now).  The reason I remember her so clearly is that she had on a maroon windbreaker exactly like one I had.  I got just a split second glimpse of her, but I have never forgotten her imagine. 

For days I kept thinking about that woman.  Every time I stepped outside into the cold, I thought about that woman wearing only a windbreaker.  I told myself there wasn’t much I could have done.  I was a poor college student, without any money, spending only a few hours in the city.  There was nothing I could do for her, but I couldn’t get her image out of my mind.  I was thinking of her one day when I went to get my coat out of the closet and saw several other winter coats.  Then it hit me, I could have done something for her.  I could have given her my coat.  I had more coats at home.  I could have gotten a new coat at Christmas.  There was something I could have done, I could have given spontaneously. 

In Luke 10, Jesus tells a story about a man who was on his way home when he was beaten, robbed, and left along the side of the road.  A priest came along and saw the man, but he passed him by without helping.  A religious leader came down the road and saw the man, but he also passed him by.  They each saw the man in need but thought, I don’t have time to help.  There really isn’t anything I can do, I’m just a poor college student on my way home, I can’t do anything.  But then a Samaritan came along and saw the man.  He stopped.  He bandaged the man’s wounds, carried him to an inn, and paid for his care until he could return.  He gave spontaneously. 

Spontaneous Giving is one way we can grow in our giving.  Spontaneous giving is meeting a need when we see it.  It is giving when we think about it.  It’s acting on the idea of giving when the idea comes into our mind.  Spontaneous giving looks like taking off our coat when we see someone in need whether we have another one at home or not.  Spontaneous giving looks like paying the bill for someone behind us in line at the store, or passing on the gift card given to us to someone we know really needs it. 

Spontaneous giving doesn’t always have to involve money - sometimes it is serving or helping when we see the need.  Baxter Caldwell, an active member of the UMC in Altoona, was delivering turkeys at Thanksgiving when he got to one man’s house who asked him, “what am I supposed to do with it?”  Baxter said, “you put it in a roaster and cook it.”  The man said, “I don’t have a roaster, and I don’t have an oven that works.”  Baxter asked what he cooked on and he said, an electric skillet.  So Baxter went with the man into the kitchen, asked for a knife and deboned the turkey so the man could cook it in his electric skillet. 

Spontaneous giving is something we can all do, but we have to be looking for the opportunities and then act quickly.  Opportunities to give and serve are literally all around us and if we ask God to open our eyes so we can see these needs - God will give us generous eyes to see these needs, but once we see them we have to act quickly because it is too easy to talk ourselves out of giving. 

A few years after I that trip to NYC, two friends and I were in downtown Lansing.  As we passed an alley, we saw a man digging through a dumpster and eating what he found left in a McDonald’s bag.  We all saw it, but only one of us stopped - and no, it wasn’t me.  It was my friend who stopped and said, “we have to do something.”  We pooled our money and invited the man to lunch. 

While I had seen the need, I wasn’t quick to act, and if we aren’t quick to act we will find all kinds of excuses to keep on walking.  We don’t really know the situation, or how to help.  We don’t have the time now, we will help the next time, or we will send a check to the food bank later.  I don’t know what it’s like for you, but I do know what it is like for me, I can too easily justify not helping.  Giving spontaneously is something we learn to do but the only way to learn is to step up and act when we see a need and give when we feel compelled to give. 

While spontaneous giving is one way to give and one way we can grow in our generosity and experience of God’s blessing, we can not leave all of our giving up to spontaneous needs,  God also calls us to Strategic Giving.  Tithing is strategic giving.  It’s sitting down and looking at our budget and our resources, and then planning what we need to return to God.  One of the greatest stories of planned giving is found in the gospel of Matthew and is a familiar story we often hear at this time of year. 

The Magi were strategic givers.  They saw a new star in the sky and knew that it meant a new king was born in the nation of Israel.  They wanted to welcome this new king and honor him, so they purchased gifts fit for a king - gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  They purchased the gifts before they left home to make sure they had them to give to the king once they found him.  They planned their journey, researched where the king of Israel might possibly be born, and then made all the strategic plans for the journey taking the gifts with them.  In many ways the first gifts we see given to Jesus were strategic and planned gifts that teach us the value of strategic and planned giving. 
If we don’t make plans to give to God - we won’t give to God.  As the old saying goes, those who fail to plan - plan to fail.  Those who fail to make a plan to give - in the end won’t have anything to give.  This is one reason why God calls us to give our first fruits.  If we plan to give to God first, then we will always have something to give and always have what we need left over.   

Tithing is certainly one way we can give strategically, but there are other times and places where strategic and planned giving is important for us to consider.  Most economists say that over the next 3-4 decades we are going to see the greatest transfer of wealth in human history take place as one generation passes on their wealth to the next generation.  Planned and strategic giving is vital when we think about how to share our assets at the end of life.  While most of us might just think of passing our wealth on to our families - what about supporting the work of God both here and around the world? 

Some of the endowments and gifts given to us by people in the past are blessing us today.  Alan Blakeslee left us a percentage of his estate and that money has helped us make sound and lighting upgrades in the sanctuary.  It has helped us upgrade electrical work throughout the church and has freed up resources to expand our ministry.  Planned giving now can also support missions in the future as our mission team seeks to establish an endowment fund to always keep missions going here at Faith Church. 

Planned giving is important because it forces us to give in ways that are intentional, ongoing, and proportional, but spontaneous and strategic giving really only prepares us for the third kind of giving God calls for, and that is Sacrificial Giving.  While we often picture sacrificial giving as emptying out our bank accounts, or selling all we have to give to the church or to the poor, let me share a story of sacrificial giving that touched my heart. 


Edna was a faithful member of my congregation in Altoona and there had recently been a death in her family so I decided to stop by to see how she was doing.  She lived between the church and my home, so I stopped around noon on my way home for lunch.  Edna was happy to see me and invited me into her small kitchen where she was making lunch - a single can of soup.  That was it.  She didn’t have anything else out to eat, and may not have had anything else in her house to eat, and yet she insisted that I stay and have lunch with her.  I tried to leave but she persisted and got out two bowls and shared her soup with me.  Edna didn’t have much in life.  She didn’t have much in her home, and she didn’t have much to eat that day and yet she shared it with me.  I ate with humility and began to understand what sacrificial giving looked like. 

Jesus shows us what sacrificial giving looks like. Mark 12:41-47.  It’s interesting to note that Jesus is watching what people put into the temple treasury.  God sees what we give, he not only sees the gift but he sees the attitude of our heart as we give.  I just want to point that out as food for thought.  What Jesus sees here is that while many people were giving big gifts - this woman gave the most because she gave sacrificially.  She gave all she had to live on. 

I’m not sure we can ever get to a place of sacrificial giving until we have learned how to give spontaneously and strategically, but one way to practice and grow in sacrificial giving is to simply give more than what we think we can give.  If we think we can give only $1, then maybe we need to give $2.   Think we can give only $10, give $20.  At the other end, if we  think we can give only $1,000 maybe we need to give $2,000 and see what happens - see how God can still meet our needs and maybe bless us in ways we never imagined. 

Giving sacrificially is important because it teaches us not to trust in ourselves or the things of this world, but to trust in God alone.  It also helps us become more like Jesus because Jesus is the one who gave himself sacrificially.  While we see the sacrifice of Jesus when he gave his life on the cross, long before that day God gave himself sacrificially in Jesus’ birth.  When God came to us in the person of Jesus, the Bible says, God emptied himself.  God gave up all the authority of heaven to come into this world as a man, and then once here, God chose to come not as the wealthy but the poor, not as the most popular but the most lowly and humble.  Sacrificial giving marks the beginning and end of Jesus’ life, it marks his entire life, which means that to follow Jesus we need to find ways to sacrifice and to give more than we think we can. 

We grow in giving when we open our eyes and hearts to give spontaneously, when we sit down and plan ways to give strategically, and when we step up in faith to give sacrificially.  We grow in giving by simply giving and when we give we are blessed and experience the blessed life. 


Next Steps
A Generous Eye - Seeing How to Give More

Spontaneous Giving
Think back to a time you gave spontaneously.
● How did it make you feel?
● What did you learn from the experience?
● Who was blessed?

Think back to a time when you could have given spontaneously but didn’t.
● Why didn’t you give?
● What did you learn from that experience?

Ask God to show you the needs of those around you and how you can give today to help meet their needs - then give.

Strategic Giving
How has strategic and planned giving made a difference in your life?

Where can you plan to give today so you don’t plan to fail in giving tomorrow? 

Sacrificial Giving
When have you given more than you thought you could?
● In what area did you give?
● Time?  Money?  Service?
● What did you learn? 

Read Mark 12:41-44.  If Jesus watched you give your offering today, what would he say? 
What is God asking you to sacrifice in order to be truly generous?  What one step can you take to move yourself toward sacrificial giving? 

The Blessed Life - The Blessing Test

This month we are talking about how to experience the blessed life and most of us know that by almost any standard we might use, we are blessed.  In financial terms, we are blessed.  The global poverty rate is defined as living on less than $2 a day.  By these terms, we are blessed.  In Sierra Leone, where we support pastors and churches, the average person earns $1.14 per day.  In Belize where we just helped send a second container, the average person earns $7.65 per day.  In the US the average person earns over $87 per day.  By any standard we use, we are blessed.  That’s good news for us and we need to thank God for all that we have. 

That’s the good news, here’s the bad news…  Jesus said, it is more blessed to GIVE than to RECEIVE and when it comes to giving, we don’t always do a very good job.  I looked at a lot of different studies on giving to charities this week and while the numbers and percentages often changed, the same picture always emerged.  The more money people make, the less money they give.  For example, those in the bottom 20% of income in the US gave an average of 3.2% of their income to charity, while the top 20% gave 1.3%.  Every study said the same thing, the more blessed people were financially, meaning the more money they had, the less they gave. 

Why, when we have more money to give, do we begin to hold on to it more tightly?  Why do we struggle to give when we have been given so much?  The answer is that money is the #1 competitor for our heart.  As we hold on to our money and as we get more money, the temptation is to trust our money more than everything else.  The more money we get, and the tighter we hold it, and the more we believe the promises that money makes.  Money promises to do for us the very things that God wants to do.  In other words, money is trying to be our god.  Think of it, money promises to bring these things that God has promised: Security, Freedom, Power, Significance. 

Money promises us security.  We are told that when we have enough money, which usually means MORE money, we won’t have to worry about anything and all our future needs will be met.  With more money we will be secure, and so we begin to trust our money more than God.  While there is an element of truth in the fact that money does bring some financial security, and we need to be wise about our finances to have a secure future, we can’t trust the money to bring the security.  God is the one who keeps us secure.  God alone is the one we need to trust when we look at the future because money can be here one day and gone the next, but God is always there and always will be there.  The psalmist says, God is an ever present help in times of need.

Money also promises freedom.  If we have more money we will be free from worry, free from stress, free from problems, and maybe even free from having to work.  While we think money brings freedom, the reality is that when we trust our money we become its slave.  Trusting money means always working to get more money.  It means always managing our money, and worrying about what we have, and where we have it, and if we need to move it.  People who trust in their money are the ones who check their accounts daily to see how much they have, how much they have earned, and if their accounts took a hit with the changes in the market.  There is no freedom when we trust in money.

Money also promises power and significance.  From business to sports to entertainment to politics, it is the ones who have the money that the world listens to and follows.  It is the people with money that seem to be important and powerful.  For the next 12 months we are going to hear this constantly.  In politics we are told that the one with the most money has the most power and is the most significant and therefore is the best candidate and has the best chance of winning.  But the power and importance that comes with money is fleeting because it is gone when the money’s gone. 

While money promises these things, in the end it always fails, and it fails because it is trying to do what God alone can do.  Only God keeps us safe and secure - even in the midst of a storm.  When Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, and forgave sinners he was showing us that God alone is the one who sets us free.  Only God provides us with a power that can endure through all of life, and a power that can do all things and even greater things than Jesus, and it is God who made us for a purpose and we find true significance when we start living for God.  Money can never provide the things that God desires to give, and yet we turn to money over and over again, and the more money we have - the more we lean on it, depend on it, and trust in it. 

Because money is the #1 competitor for our hearts, Jesus said, You cannot serve both God and money.  Jesus didn’t say this about anything else because there is nothing else that has the same hold on us.  Now most of us would probably say that we don’t love and trust money more than God, but let me ask this: would your life be better if you had a little more money?  While we may not love money, we like it, and it is necessary, and helpful, and so yes, a little more money would be good.  But then listen to this.  Ecclesiastes 5:10.  Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. 

It’s a fine line between realizing that money is necessary and that a little more can be a good thing, and trusting in our money.  Thinking that money is the answer to all our problems and that more money will always be better is a dangerous trap for our hearts, but God has given us a way out of the trap.  God has provided a system of giving that can allow us to put money in its proper place in our hearts and lives and it is a practical way we can show ourselves that our faith and trust is in God alone.  This system of giving is called the tithe. 

The word tithe literally means tenth, and it is the tenth of all our income, our resources, and the work of our hands that does not belong to us but to God.  Leviticus 27:30.  Notice that the tithe belongs to God.  The tithe is not our possessions that we give to God as a gift, it already belongs to God and we are returning it to him.  When we look at the tithe this way, if we don’t tithe then we are actually stealing from God, and while this sounds harsh, it is exactly what God says.  Malachi 3:8

The people of Israel had been told to return to God their first and best as the tithe, Proverbs 3:9-10.  While this is what God had told them, they had come to a place where they didn’t give their first fruits, and they didn’t give their best, they gave what they had left over.  They gave  to God what they thought they could.  This way of giving, over time, led them to trust more in the work of their hands, their money, than in God.  God was testing the people here and reminding them that if they really loved Him over all things, and trusted God to provide for them, then they would return to God what already belongs to him - the full tithe. 

I have often wondered why 10% was the amount God chose, and I have no answer to that, but it is interesting that when God wanted to test people’s faith the #10 often appears.  When God wanted to test his people and see if they would follow and obey him - how many commandments did God give?  When God tested Pharaoh to see if he would soften his heart toward the Israelites - how many plagues did God send?  When Jesus healed a group of lepers to see if they return and give thanks to God - how many lepers did Jesus heal?  And how many returned?  (one - a tenth).  And when Jesus chose his disciples and formed the church - how many disciples did Jesus choose?  (OK, I was just testing you.)

Over and over again we see the #10 emerge as part of God’s testing his people to see if they would be faithful and live for him instead of for themselves and the tithe is the same thing.  Giving God a tenth of our income and resources tests our hearts to see what it is we truly love and trust.  Do we trust God or our money?  It’s a difficult test, and it’s hard to do, but it is one very practical step we can take in order to experience the blessed life. 

Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive, which might lead us to ask, what should I give or how much should I give?  What percentage of giving shows God that I trust him and love him more than the things of this world?  A tithe is a great place to start. 

Giving 10% is a very practical step that shows us that we have placed God first in our lives.  If we say we love and trust God above all things, this is one clear way to show ourselves that it’s true.  It is a test of our faith. 

But the tithe is also a way that God invites us to test him.  Usually testing God is not seen as being a good thing.  In fact, Jesus quoted the Old Testament scriptures when he said, do not put the Lord your God to the test.  But in one area we are invited by God to test him, and that is in giving.  The tithe is not just a test of our faith but it is also a test of God’s faithfulness.  God invites us to test him to see if it truly is more blessed to give - Malachi 3:9-12.

Test me, God says.  Give me the tithe and see how you will be blessed.  Test me and let me prove to you that I will not only be faithful but generous.  It’s a blessing test.  If we give - we will be blessed and receive all that God has to give us. 

Giving 10% to God is not always an easy thing to do because when we figure out what that amount is, it might be more than we have ever given before.  My first week as a pastor I thought about what I needed to put in the offering.  I’ll be honest, I had never tithed before.  In fact, during college and seminary and the few years in between when I worked, I was in and out of so many churches that I never gave anything more than a few dollars when an offering plate passed by.  But I was now living as part of a church community and family, what was I going to give.  I thought about a tithe so sat down to figure out just how much money that would be.  When I did, I thought, wow, that’s a lot.  It was more money than I had ever given before, and then I realized that I was going to have to give that every week.  I wasn’t sure I could do it, but then I read these verses and realized it was a test of my faith and God’s faithfulness. 

It can be financially difficult to tithe and it might call for us to re-prioritize our lives and reorder our finances in order to give.  We might need to spend less on phones, tvs, computers, and other electronics in order to put God first.  We might need to eat out less, buy fewer shoes and clothes, shop thrift stores instead of retail, and we might need to forgo that new car and drive the old one for a few more years in order to return to God what is rightfully his.  It’s not easy to reorient our lives around the tithe, but once we do - we will be blessed. 

But let’s be clear, God’s blessing is not always financial. Sometimes the blessing we receive is the joy we feel when we give to God.  Knowing that we are lifting up a child and family and village with the gift of a box, and seeing the excitement of the children in the videos is a blessing we get when we give.   

Sometimes the blessing we receive when we give is knowing that we are helping people come to Jesus and experience God’s love  Your tithe to Faith Church helps children learn and trust Jesus on Sunday mornings, during VBS, and all week at our Daycare and Playschool.  Your tithe helps youth know Jesus through our youth ministry and outreach programs like the 5th Quarter.  Your giving supports people in need.  It helps feed the hungry, house the homeless, and it cares for those who are sick and alone in our community.   

Your tithe also helps us care for people in Belize, and the church and pastors in Sierra Leone.  We support God’s work around the world and we know that our giving makes a difference in the lives of others.  But our tithe doesn’t just help other people know and trust Jesus, it helps grow in our faith as well.  Our tithe provides us the opportunity to worship and learn together every week.  It helps us  create a community where we can use our gifts and share our faith in countless ways from singing to sewing to teaching to cooking, and as we share our gifts and serve God we find our significance and experience the power of God.  Our tithe to the church helps us grow in our relationship with God, the church and the world, which means it helps us become more like Jesus. 

The blessed life comes when we give and not receive, and God has called us to give our first and our best, and he invites us to return to him a tenth not as a test of our faith as much as a test of God’s faithfulness.  As I close, let me be clear that the tithe is not the law and it is not a requirement for being a follower of Jesus.  If we are honest, Jesus called people to go beyond the tithe in order to love and God others.  Jesus called people to give sacrificially, and generously, and to anyone who was in need. 

The tithe is not the law, it is a test, a test of our faith and God’s faithfulness.  It is also a system of giving that can help us make sure that money and wealth never gets a hold our hearts.  So take the blessing test, test God and return what belongs to him.  Test God and find out that the blessed life comes as we give. 


Next Steps
The Blessed Life - The Blessing Test

Read about the tithe
● Genesis 14:20, and Genesis 28:20-22
● Leviticus 27:30-32
● Malachi 3:8-10

Tithing teaches us that all we have comes from God.
● Ask God to help you see that all you have comes from Him and then give thanks
● Thank God for the financial blessings we have simply because we live in the United States. 

Money promises Security, Freedom, Power, Significance. 
● In what ways do you find money providing these things in your life? 
● How has money and wealth take the top place in your heart and life?

Giving 10% to God’s work through the church is a clear sign of our faith and trust in God. 
● What percentage do you currently give back to God?
● Figure out what a tithe would be for you and your family.
● What steps would you have to take in order to give the tithe to God?  What would need to be reordered and re-prioritized in your life?  What might you have to give up?
● What one step can you take this week to move toward tithing?

Information about giving to God through Faith Church can found at bellefontefaith.com/give. 

The Blessed Life - A Heart of Generosity

Last month we looked at 3 relationships that were at the heart of Jesus’ life and how our following Jesus means living dynamically in these 3 Relationships.  We also identified 5 rhythms in each relationship that can help us grow stronger in our faith.  If you were not able to be with us for that series, we want to invite you to pick up a study guide that you can use to learn about these relationships, they are available at the connection table.  This month we want to look at 2 of the 15 rhythms in more detail because it is these two rhythms that will do more to help us live and experience a blessed life than any other: they are Generosity and Blessing.

● Generosity - I use my time and treasure to further the kingdom of God.
● Blessing - I find ways to make the world around me better.  

You will notice that both of these rhythms involve giving, so the truth that we are going to explore for the next few weeks is that we are blessed when we give.  Jesus said, it is more blessed to GIVE than to RECEIVE, but we often think in the exact opposite terms.  We often think that we are blessed when we receive more in life.  We picture a blessed life as one where we have everything we need financially and physically, and then some, but the truth is we are blessed in more ways, and in more lasting ways, when we give.  Proverbs 11:24 - one person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.  

It might seem counter intuitive that when we give more we will receive more, but that is exactly what God says. 2 Corinthians 9:6, remember whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.  From a purely agricultural standpoint, this makes sense.  If we only plant a few seeds, we only get a few plants and a small harvest, but if we scatter a lot of seeds, we will get a larger harvest.  We are more blessed when we give and give generously.

But let’s be clear that we are not talking about a financial blessing, we are talking about so much more.  If we read on in 2 Corinthians we get a great picture of what a blessed life looks like.
2 Corinthians 9:8, God is able to bless you abundantly so that in ALL THINGS at ALL TIMES, having ALL YOU NEED, you will ABOUND in EVERY good work.  

The blessing we want, and the blessing we receive when we give, is the abundance of God’s gifts and grace that comes at all times and in all places and provides us with all the things we need.  At times this blessing might be financial, but at other times the abundance and blessing will be experienced in relationships, or with an emotional and physical well-being, or a spiritual health which can lead to peace and contentment.  In all things and in all ways, God says, we will be blessed.

So we experience a blessed life when we give and give generously of our time and treasure.  This kind of giving flows from a heart of generosity and so it is that heart which is the key to a blessed life.  So why is it that our hearts are not more generous?  What is it that holds us back from giving freely and generously?  To answer that, we are going to look at three different mindsets that shape our hearts.

The first is a Bag Mindset - all we have to live on is what is in the bag.  When we think this way we tend to see the bag as being too small and full of holes.  We hear this from the prophet Haggai 1:6, You have planted much, but 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 bag with holes in it.  

Isn’t this often how we feel in life?  We don’t have enough money to give because there is not enough to get us through the week.  The money I put in the bag is never enough, and just when I think there might be enough, the car breaks down, someone in the family gets sick, there is an unexpected bill, and the money quickly drains away.  With a bag mindset, we trust what is in the bag instead of the one who provides what we put in the bag.  With a bag mindset we never think about giving more - we only think about needing more and trying to get more.

One of Jesus’ disciples had this kind of mindset - Judas.  Judas was the one who literally held the money bag and he trusted what was in the bag more than in Jesus, so when a woman came and broke open an expensive jar of perfume to anoint Jesus, Judas complained because the perfume could have been sold for a lot of money and put into the bag.

It wasn’t too much longer after that when Judas actually betrayed Jesus for a literal bag of money - 30 silver coins he probably received in a small bag.  He trusted what was in the bag more than he did in Jesus, and too often this is how we live our lives.  We trust what is in the bag, or in the bank, more than we trust in Jesus.  We don’t give to God because we don’t think we will have enough to make ends meet.  This mindset keeps us from giving, which in turn keeps us from being blessed by God and living a blessed life.

We need to turn the Bag Mindset into the Basket Mindset.  A basket mindset understands - we have more than enough so we can begin to give.  Deuteronomy 28:4-6.
And Jesus said Luke 6:38.  Give and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap (your basket).  For the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  

In Jesus’ day, people would take their baskets out to receive an allotment of grain.  To get as much into the basket as they could, they would press it down, shake it to get the air out, and fill it so full that it would literally run over the sides as they carried it home.  When we picture our lives like this, with so much that it literally runs over the side, we will be able to give and give generously. 

When we see God filling our baskets this way, our faith and trust begins to shift from the bag, or the basket, to the God who fills it.  When we know we have more than enough because God gives generously, we will be more generous with our giving and when we are more generous with our giving, we will experience more of God’s blessing because Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

There was a boy who was willing to give his 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish to Jesus when Jesus wanted to feed the crowd who was with him.  When Jesus took the food it says he blessed it, and then he gave it to the people, and after everyone ate, what did the disciples do?  They went out and picked up 12 baskets full of bread.  This is a picture of the blessed life.  When we give what we have to God, God not only uses it but blesses us with leftovers.  A basket mindset comes when we look to the one who gives instead of what we have been given.

As we make this shift, and experience the blessing that comes with it, something begins to happen in our heart and life, we grow more confident and courageous in our giving and begin to give more, and when we give more we see that God doesn’t just provide us with a basket full but a barn full.  We develop a Barn Mindset - God gives us abundantly more than what we need.

Deuteronomy 28:8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to.  When we see that God will give us abundantly more than what we can imagine, it inspires us to give in ways we never thought possible.  With a barn mindset we don’t just give a tithe to the church, 10%,, we start thinking about doubling that amount.

As I’ve been thinking about this barn mindset, I’ve thought about how in many ways our barns are already full but we still have a bag mindset.  Many of us have garages, basements, attics, and storage containers that are full and overflowing, and yet we still don’t have a mindset that allows us to give as generously as we might like.  We still hold back because we don’t think that all we have will be enough.  We are still trusting what is in the bag and basket and barn instead of the One who fills all three.

A blessed life comes when we give, and giving comes from a heart of generosity, and a heart of generosity comes from the right vision and mindset.  What we need to see clearly is that all we have comes from God and God has told us that the more we give - the more we will receive.  Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive, so it is when we give that we will experience the blessed life. 
During the next several weeks at Faith Church we will be given many opportunities to give.  We can fill and give a shoe box, or maybe give financially to help send the boxes world-wide, or provide an additional $6 per box so that children can learn more about Jesus.  We can give to the food bank by providing crackers and peanut butter, or making an additional donation to help provide food for those in need.  What will you spend on our family for Thanksgiving?  Can we give that much away to those in need in our community or world?  We will soon start signing up for the Christmas Dinner where gifts of money, pies, and most of all our time will be needed to help bless our community on Christmas Day.  The more we give the more we will receive.  The more we give the more we will experience the blessed life.

What kind of mindset do we have?  Bag - Basket - Barn.  What one thing can we do this week to change our mindset and enlarge the capacity of heart to give?  If we want to experience a blessed life, it’s easy, find one more way and one more thing to give.


Next Steps
The Blessed Life

Jesus said it is more blessed to _______ than to _________.
How have you experienced this in your own life?

What mindset do you have when it comes to giving?

Bag Mindset - I don’t have enough to give.
Read Haggai 1:6
● How does this reflect your own thoughts about giving?
● When have you not given because you didn’t think God would provide?

Basket Mindset - I have more than enough to give
Read Deuteronomy 28:4-6 and Luke 6:38
● How does this reflect my thoughts about giving?
● In what ways has God “pressed down and shaken together” the gifts he has given?

Barn Mindset - God has more than I could ever need and God freely and generously gives.
Read Deuteronomy 28:8, Luke 12:16, Proverbs 3:9-10
● How does this reflect my thoughts about giving?
● In what ways are my barns already overflowing?  Has this shaped my capacity to give?

We grow in a generous heart by expanding our mindset.  What is one way you can give this month that will help you and your family move from a bag to a barn mindset?

Review the 3 Relationships material on Generosity and Blessing and ways to grow in these two rhythms.  Study Guides are available at the Connection Table.