An Honorable Stewardship

Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 8? We want to talk to you this morning about an honorable stewardship. In fact, these next four Sundays, I Would like to talk to you about stewardship. How about we are entering into our stewardship season, and I want to talk about this key element of discipleship, which is How we handle our riches and our resources for the Lord. I don't preach on stewardship very much. Mainly because I don't like to. That's not a good reason. It's not a popular subject. I get the fused amount of positive emails When I preach on stewardship, which either means that I get nervous and they're bad sermons, or You don't like to hear about it, or maybe a combination of both. The elders in the administration department have asked me to devote November each year to stewardship. I'm not sure I'm necessarily want to do that, but I certainly agree with them that it's Something that we need to speak about. I think over the course of our history We have tended to avoid that subject from our pulpit here at Christ's Covenant, and that's been to our detriment because Jesus Christ speaks a lot about stewardship as do the apostles, and they speak of great deal About wealth and money and things in fact Jesus tells us that money is a power a God He calls Maman a spiritual force that had hold us back from what is Good and spiritual and fact can even keep us from eternal life Paul reminds us that it's the love of money that is a root Not the but a root of all sorts of evil, and he says for many by craving after money Have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many a pang hurt themselves in great and Serious ways because they loved money too much in each church there are people who are genuine and gracious and good givers, and I want to thank you for that Good givers and consistent giving each week is what Enables us to do the ministry that we do here and literally around the world But there's always a need for us to grow in our stewardship. We never are Holy enough and we're never good enough stewards these things seem to be Two elements of the Christian life that are inextricably linked together our holiness our growth and sanctification that are giving And as the one lags so does the other they seem to have a symbiotic relationship When I came here At the to Christ covenant I gave the elders a list of 15 non-negotiables things I wanted to see us work on Everything from the primacy of preaching in the pulpit to women's ministry and our relationship to reform theological seminary and covenant day school and all sorts of things and And I'm happy to report that of those 15 long-range goals we have made huge and consistent progress because of the elders Cooperation and their leadership in all 15 areas. I Do have to say that I left one thing out I didn't do it on purpose, but it was my mistake and That I did not set before us a long-range goal or a non-negotiable To become a church that was really strong in stewardship. It was an oversight on my part perhaps Subconsciously avoiding a subject that I just don't like to talk about But we need to talk about it because we need to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and growing in his grace and knowledge means that we grow in our stewardship. So how do we propose to do that? Well It's by inculcating into our spiritual DNA here at Christ covenant some principles and practices and patterns of giving That will develop together like a family a family does this they they set a budget They determine what their priorities are and where their money is going to go and how they're going to finance these things and Budget these things and spend the money that they do save and that they earn and I think we need to do the same thing. I want to make you a promise in These next three messages is in in in this morning's message. I don't tend to make you feel guilty. I Don't think guilt is a good motivator I don't think you need to be cajoled or manipulated into giving I Have no secret agenda that I'm trying to promote here. What I want to do is give you information information about where we are financially information about what we need from you How to focus on our goals and a long-range plan for some financial goals that we have that will really be Ablessing to us and to those to whom we minister so over the next four weeks. We have a slide I think slide number one that should be coming up. I want to focus on these four things. I want to look at An honorable stewardship and where our money's going how we spend it I want to look at a call to sacrifice and talk about sacrificial giving next Sunday and then a biblical model of giving What it means for the church to be the storehouse of God how they receive and Dispersion manage monies that the Lord gives to us and finally About a spiritual house and where we need to go long-term not only spiritually, but in our our house that we live in this building We call our facilities so I want you to relax and smile Do something very unprecedented and smile And pray with me as we want to approach this thing in a positive way and see the Lord bless us and other people in fact I would like you to join with me in your heart as I pray a little prayer out of the book of common prayer It's called a prayer of thanksgiving for plenty. Let's pray Almost merciful father Who by thy gracious goodness has heard the devout prayers of thy church and turned our dearth and scarcity into plenty We give you thanks For this your special bounty besieging you to continue your loving kindness unto us That our land may yield us her fruits and increase to your glory and to our comfort and good All these things you have for us Through Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord Amen You'll turn to second Corinthians chapter eight. I want to read this passage of scripture and Speak on some of the principles in it this morning second Corinthians chapter eight Verses 16 to 24 But thanks be to God who puts into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest. He is going to you of his own accord With him we are sending the brother who was famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel Not only that But he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us For the glory of the Lord himself and to show our goodwill We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us For we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord's sight But also in the sight of man and With them we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters But he was now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you As for Titus he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit As for our brothers, there are messengers of the churches the glory of Christ So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you and these men What Paul was talking about here Is this special Ministry he had while he went on his three missionary journeys Right before Paul went on his first missionary journey if you Would turn back to Acts chapter 11 you would find a story about a prophet named Agobus Who prophesied that there would be a great famine and difficulty that would come upon the church of Judea the church of Palestine And that they would be in great financial stress and need for a number of years so Paul tells us in Galatians chapter two that when Peter and James and John affirmed he and Barnabas as Missionaries to the Gentiles they gave them the right hand to fellowship and he said they only asked us to remember the poor They're very very thing that we were eager to do So they asked him as he went out and planted churches To do something that is quite frankly the opposite of what we do today They asked Paul to ask the churches whom they were Starting out of the home church of Antioch and Jerusalem to give money back to the mother churches who were suffering From famine and persecution and that is what the early churches in Macedonia and Greece in Asia Minor and Galatia and even in Rome did in the early days of the Gospels advance Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 16 now concerning the collection for the saints as I directed the churches of Galatia So you do also on the first day of every week each of you should put something aside and store it up As he may prosper so that there will be no Collecting when I come and when I arrive I will send those Whom are accredited by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem If this seems advisable that I should go also they will accompany me Says basically the same thing to the church of Roman Romans chapter 15 How they were pleased To make this offering and he was going to collect it and take it to the church of Rome So in his fourth letter which is second Corinthians To the church at Gornth Paul gives some detailed instructions in chapters 8 and 9 about this offering and about giving and about stewardship and in this passage He talks about the principles of an honorable stewardship because there were questions Honest questions about now how is this money going to be used and and who was going to take this money to Jerusalem and Worthy's men trustworthy and how is Paul going to spend the money and how much Influence did he have over how this money was dispersed and so he answers these questions in this paragraph that we're looking at today And he lays out five principles. I think they're good Biblical principles for stewardship and here's the first one He says his verses 16 through 19 and then at the end of this paragraph in verses 22 to 24 that The monies that are gathered from the saints to do ministry Should be entrusted to men of integrity who are well-known and appointed by the church. Look what he says in verse 16 Thanks be to God who put into your heart the heart of ties the same earnest care I have for you Free only accepted our appeal. I mean not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest He is going to you of his own accord With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel And not only that but he also has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace That is being ministered by us for the glory of the Lord himself Show our goodwill He says I'm sending Titus who you know and A brother who he doesn't mention was famous in all of the churches for his preaching probably a policy and They're going to go along and take this money from all of the churches in a Kea in Greece where they were And they're going to take it back to Jerusalem. He says in verse 22 There's a third fella going with him and With them we are sending our brother Who we have often tested and found earnest in many matters We does now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you probably Most people who are Bible scholars speculate that that was Timothy So here's three well-known people in the church Titus and Timothy and a Paulus Titus for sure the other two were guessing at Who are officers of the church who are well-known? Trusted by the people had ministries of integrity and Personal influence over these churches and these saints and they were going to take the money back It's a principle that we're following here Christ's covenant. We we appoint men as elders and deacons in our church as Well as our pastors and they a Point staff alongside of them to manage the monies that you bring in Eat Sunday and that you put in the collection plate that we lay before the Lord We budget these funds and we spend them we allocate them by the priorities that we believe our Central and essential to our philosophy and our vision and that we have published to you each year folks we are edited by a company called Kapan and Kraus out of Atlanta, Georgia and Every year they present an audit to us They will at this session meaning that's coming at the end of November and every year We get an a-plus on the audit. We have impeccable Record keeping and standards. We owe that to quite frankly to Sandy Spitz in his office and to the men and women who serve on our Administration committee Jay Lynch and Larry Kirkman and others who've been the chairman of this committee. They do a wonderful job Accounting for the standards that that we have said before us. We're not members up But we follow the standards of the ECFA the Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability and each year we get stellar marks of integrity and proper management and budget and allocation of funds. I think That should encourage you. We'll give you confidence in how we're spending our money a Second principle here is the principle of stewardship as an act of grace Because he says in verse 19 and not only That Titus, but he also has been appointed by the church to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us Paul makes no bones about it in 2nd Corinthians 8 and 9 that stewardship is a work of God's grace Look if you will in chapter 9 at verse 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you So that having all sufficiency and all things at all times you may abound in every good work Paul says that the source Of your and my ability to give money to the Lord is his grace We're really folks that this is a great This is a great way to think about stewardship It relieves a lot of the pressure and the ox and even the guilt about stewardship When we realize that what we're giving to God is what he has already given to us by his grace He's not asking for us to give him anything more than what he has already given to us and only a portion of that and

One of the things we try to do at Christ covenant It's to minister and administer In a gracious manner, which means we try to burn lean We don't try to spend a lot of money on things that are not necessary Because we want people to experience and to reflect back Through our giving and our benefits to them the grace of God His caring for them his Good and kind work that's mediated through the gifts that we receive from you and use in ministry So we are a church that is seeking to do a work of grace With the stewardship that you have given to us Thirdly Stewardship has one major objective and that is the glory of God Paul says in verse 19 This act of grace that is being ministered by us for the glory of the Lord Himself I know that sometimes That it's it's easy for us to think That money is a dirty thing And be honest with you sometimes the Bible refers to money is filthy lucre In fact Jacques Lulew of French Christian philosopher said that every time that money is talked about in the Bible, it's talked about in a negative manner Never in a neutral way and yet Money is an instrument In the hands of the Church of Jesus Christ to glorify God Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do Paul would say two chapters later Do all for the glory of God There is a way in which people Come to encounter the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and bring him glory Through stewardship that they do not encounter in any other way That is our chief end to glorify God And enjoy him forever and whenever we hear testimonies of people As we will in the coming weeks Who've been blessed by our ministry and what we've done for them Then that is glory That accrues to God and redounds to his favor and his pleasure Here's a fourth principle Steward ship is not only something to reflect glory to God. It's also Reflects our goodwill towards other people Paul says this grace that is being ministered by us for the glory of the Lord and to show our Goodwill I mentioned to the discovery class this morning that we are We're entering into an age. I hope it doesn't last for long but quite frankly we're in this age in which Whenever the Church of Jesus Christ speaks prophetically Speaks evangelistically speaks ethically Into the culture we receive a huge Negative reaction But not so when we act redemptively When we are generous When we give and we care and we alleviate suffering it is through service That we show our goodwill towards men and that goodwill Often earns for us not always but often earns for us a hearing that gives glory to God sometimes In fact, it's easy for families and churches always I guess To become so preoccupied with what they're doing internally They forget That the goodwill of Jesus Christ is often mediated through them. That's why Paul Tells Titus at the end of that little epistle that He wants people to learn how to do good works because he says these things are good and profitable for all mankind There's something that is Ain't it all mankind goodwill toward men the angel said On Christmas day that the church can do through its stewardship Fifthly this fifth principle is there it's nothing To blame your pastors and elders about for keeping before you the sacred calling of biblical stewardship That sounds strange, but that is what Paul says if you look at verse 20 We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us That's encouraging to me because Paul must have sensed the same thing that I sense That he's going to get this from people When he starts talking about money and reminding them of sacrificial giving and of stewardship and of their ability to follow through on the promises They made which he writes about in this epistle Scott Hatheman in the footnote of the ESV study Bible says about this verse This is the same phrase used in chapter 3 verse 3 to describe Paul's new covenant ministry of the spirit where it is collecting money for the need of Jerusalem Was an essential part of his apostolic ministry of the gospel so that no one should blame him As Paul delivered the gift to Jerusalem He would be accompanied by a team of men well known for their integrity Their presence would be a guarantee of public accounting for the gifts and also provide protection from robbers So Paul says Don't blame your leaders for doing what God's ministry Demands them to do and that is to talk about the resources we need in order to press forward in this ministry now Why why's Paul writing all this What's the point of chapters eight and nine he tells us in verse 21 For we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord's sight But also in the sight of men Then we don't aim at what's popular he says or what's welcomed Or even For what people are grateful for We aim at what is honorable It is a sad fact that in our world Most of the time when we talk about money

We have to protect ourselves against dishonesty Jane and I are trying to refinance our house The interest rates are ridiculously low. In fact, I told Jane if I waited a couple years they'll pay me To own the house. It's but you know folks Now I'm refinancing listen. I'm refinancing with Wells Fargo the same bank. I've been with since I got here We're we have our our house note with them now and we have pretty good credit rating And they know us but the paperwork I have the pages I had to sign To protect Wells Fargo I should bring them up here just and I could convince you just with that stack of papers of the doctrine of the depravity of man So unbelievable all the things that could go wrong With the refinancing of a house and I thought to myself you know why every one of these 32 pieces of paper Because somebody behind each one of those 32 pieces of paper Is trying to do something dishonest Toward the bank Toward the government Toward The homeowner and so it's natural for us to think that this whole subject of money Is a dishonorable Unspiritual thing that's not true Paul says what we're doing here Is what is honorable so there are some principles Let me just for a few moments transition just some Principles that kind of flow out of those things they're extrapolated Functioning principles here at Christ covenant that follow these biblical principles. We just looked at and here here They are first of all Just for your background information This year Christ covenant will collect about four point seven million dollars for ministry For our congregation alone at least that's our targeted amount When we add to that two hundred and eighty thousand dollars of faith promises for missions 235,000 for sore one million eight hundred fifty seven thousand for campus outreach here in abroad And if you include that eight point one million dollars comes in through our Church and its corporation for covenant day school administered by jody billyard and mark davis and the board There's a grant total of fifteen million one hundred and seventy two thousand in our world of ministry right here in Matthews It's coming into our church and being administered by your leaders So I'd like to set before you Some things I think that will encourage you because I we are aiming at what is honorable and quite frankly I want you to trust us. I want to show you that we've earned that trust Here's the first local principle we follow is that We bring our spending into alignment with our vision and purpose as a church And entrust this management to the officers of the church we call this focus and alignment We are examining every request for money Every request for mission dollars for mercy ministries for allocations for equipment and facilities Scholarships internships everything So that we focus and align our giving With the purpose that we have for us as a church otherwise This whole thing morphs into something that's very unmanageable and very ineffective So we ask questions like do these missionaries that are asking for support complement our priorities In our world missions program Can we focus fewer funds in a certain area and accomplish more rather than spreading things broadly and accomplishing very little Does the ministry promote our vision and if it doesn't then we probably won't support it So we're looking at focus and missions and in mercy and ministry and programs and personnel Even in our facilities so that our purpose statement and our priorities Are given some clout economically financially with the way we spend our money and the officers oversee this In their different responsibilities in our seven ministry departments. Here's the second principle We don't spend what we don't have We're not like the federal government Okay, we burn lean and that means folks on a functional basis Is that we tell the staff and the pastors just because it's in the budget doesn't mean you can spend it It has to be in the bank before we spend it so we're not um Living in a deficit mode. We are in a deficit We never make our budget and have never in our history made our budgets at Christ's governor church and yet our budgets are relatively manageable they're they're lean but that means that every month Our pastors and staff go through their budget and they adjust and every quarter they revise their budget So we only spend what we bring in that means at the end of every year There are a lot of things that we plan to do that we don't get to do But we practice a zero-based budgeting. There's nothing to transfer from 2012 over to 2013 Every department and every ministry starts over at zero on January 1 And we have a new budget for the coming year. We don't live in a deficit mode The third principle is we manage our debt and have a formula be followed that limits our borrowing We are able to borrow no more To have a debt structure no more than a maximum of 20% of our cash flow. We actually have a policy called camp It's another thing when you join Christ's governor church you get a 157 page manual that explains all the accostics All the abbreviations in our church C-A-M-P stands for capital asset management policy And because we've done that and because we have been aggressive in paying off our note and accelerated rate We are scheduled to pay off our debt in March of 2013 In that good news

Now we'll probably turn around borrow some more But we manage our debt so we're not debt-encumbered one of the things that cape and crows our auditors say every year And is that we have a marvelous debt-to-asset ratio because we manage our debt And we're going to talk more about that later on this month fourth principle Is we are audited every year. I mentioned this we follow the evangelical council of financial accountability and they are very stringent guidelines for how we spend money. We spend I know it frustrates Sometimes our missionaries our campus workers our pastoral staff But we really do watch what the internal revenue tells us to do Because we're doing ministry here and in foreign countries There are things like the Patriot Act now that makes us account for why and where every dollar that goes overseas Goes to because they don't want it going into the hands of terrorists through some front ministry or something we have Accountability to the to our our local City board for how how we manage our property and you know Can't cut down a tree without permission and so forth. And so even though that kind of frustrates people It is why we have sandy spits in his department on our campus and why they do such a good job because we want to have a Good name with all the people who are authorities both in the church and outside of the church And we want to be accountable for the way we spend money the fifth one is this We follow a specific set of priorities that come to reflect Our ministry priorities as a church we have a certain Uh kind of picking order so to speak of how we spend our money first of all we spend it on people That's our highest priority Personnel who do the ministry and then proclamation The gospel working evangelism mission and outreach then programs for our seven different ministry departments And then plant facilities and grounds that make up our house. I call them the four P's people proclamation programs and plant if you look at this Second slide We have a pie chart that kind of tells us where the money's going so if you give A dollar to Christ covenant church you're going to find that 50 to your percent goes to people To salaries and benefits the 20% goes towards programs of in reach and outreach 17% towards the plant and facilities And 12% goes towards miscellaneous different expenses Now if you look at this chart if you're this kind of person that ends up to be 101 percent Okay, I just want to because in two categories we round it up That's how we account for every dollar that goes in and what this pie chart tells you Is that Christ covenant church places priority upon people and ministry 72% Or 72 cents out of every dollar go it's toward people and ministry Um, it's somebody say you we spend 52% on salaries and benefits. Yes 50% of that's my salary The other two percent are the other guys, okay Well, of course we do Which is by the way lower than most churches are size and lower than most corporations Because our is a ministry of people on people our product Is people And our process is people Life on life affecting people for eternal life We don't make things and we don't Publish books and and we're not even concerned a whole lot with process what we are concerned about Is the life on life ministry That changes lives eternally so you would think that we would be a people intensive business which we are if I can use that word business So that's Now if you look at this next chart The third one this tells you how your dollar is distributed among the seven different departments So if you give a dollar to our church Where does your well 19 cents goes towards outreach Outreach and missions and campus outreach 18 cents goes to all the stuff that keeps us going um administration Lights water heating and air toilet paper papers and pencils and all the different things we need insurance policies and all sorts of stuff 10% goes towards worship and music 8 cents for children's ministry 10 cents for Christian education and come day school gifts 12 per 12 cents for youth ministry 14 cents to shepherd folks and 9 cents 9 pennies out of every dollar goes to our Mortgage it by the way folks once we pay off that mortgage We'll have 423,000 extra dollars every year to do ministry with Because that's what our house note is Big note a small note that together are right about four hundred thousand dollars And so if you add a place all the people in their personnel departments and all of the ministries You'll find that we evenly spread this money across these seven departments and and of that Big 4.7 million dollars of money that we're trying together We have about 400,000 a year that goes to our house note So that's pretty good stewardship that's good accounting for the money that we're going to give you On December 2nd. We're going to have a congregational meeting here just to give you information We're going to give you more information about where the money goes a little bit more detailed um We will be audited again. We'll have the audit report On November 26th. I need to tell you. I want to tell you that anyone is open to come to that session meeting that audit Is a matter of public information? You're free to have a copy of it if you want and you're free to come to the meeting and ask questions and every year We have people to do and we invite you to do that. We want you to know Where your money comes in and where it goes and how much it's spent in all of these different categories We obviously haven't talked this morning about Faith promises or sore and other ministries. That's a subject for later on But we wanted you to have this kind of information Because we wanted you to know that we are aiming at what is honorable We take this course So that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us For we aim at what is honorable Not only in the Lord's sight, but also in the sight of men We want our handling of money To give glory to God To exhibit goodwill towards people and to have your Honest and honorable trust Trust Is not something That leadership deserves It's something that leadership earns And if I may say so, I think the elders and deacons of our church have earned our trust And how they spend the money that you give to the Lord And the fountain head of all of this is this table before us

This is the ultimate honorable stewardship This is The management of a life for the glory of God And for the goodwill of all mankind And one that is deserving of our trust How Jesus Christ Mediates the grace of God through Himself To all of us in this world Is the essence of our faith Why do we trust in Jesus Christ? Because He is trustworthy Is worthy of our trust He has given Himself Sacrificially and personally He has spent all that He has And all that He is So that you and I might have eternal life His life on our life That we might have a new life that lives forever That's the motivation for stewardship That's the model of stewardship And therefore in God's sovereign providence when we begin to talk about stewardship in this month It's good that we start with this object lesson, this sacrament before us Where Christ will cause His grace to abandon us So that always having all sufficient So you and I might have an abundance for every good work It is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ That will be communicated to you so that you can be gracious And who you are And in what you do And how you give to other people So that they might glorify God They might see the goodwill of our Lord Jesus Christ And they might have an honorable trust In what God is doing in the world today I believe that a person will never be A good manager of his wealth Until he has received as his Lord and Savior the Lord Jesus Christ I believe that the spirit of a person outside Christ is the spirit of selfishness Of mismanagement and of distrust But I believe when a person comes to Christ And is immersed into the life of Jesus Christ A baptized in the spirit Then Jesus Christ gets a hold of his pocketbook And he begins because of the spirit's work in him Through these means of grace of preaching in the sacraments He begins to ask the Lord, Will how can I be someone Who gives glory to our Father Who displays the goodwill of Jesus Christ And has Earn the right To be trusted As a steward of God's grace And maybe you would pray about that And think about that As we go to the supper now Let's pray Father we We come now in this stewardship season to the Lord's supper We recognize that this table is for those who are believers in Jesus Christ Surrender to him in faith Who have been baptized in his name into the church Who are faithful members in good standing of a Christ honoring and Bible believing congregation Who have engaged in the stewardship of their life In an honorable way so that they are living a life That is becoming to a follower of Christ We would pray, Father, that those In our midst who have not yet come to Christ Not been baptized into his church would Would remain for the supper And that they would give themselves Their first act of stewardship Is the giving of themselves to you forever And the receiving of Jesus Christ for eternity That they might take this first step of obedience A faith and baptism in church membership So that the next time we come to the table They are welcomed as a member in good standing of your covenant community to take this table with us Fill us with your spirit Help us to think through who we are and what we do with the riches and the grace and the And the resources and treasures you've given us So that we might in an honorable way Do what you do and give glory to you and a blessing to others. We would ask this now As we prepare for this table in Jesus name