In God We Trust?

Part 1: The “C-word”

Psalm 37:3-6, Luke 16:10-15

February 5, 2006

(“Money” musical intro.)

“In God we trust.”  Ask almost any pastor what causes the most divisions within a church and he or she will tell you—it’s money!  In fact, money is what causes most divisions within a marriage or a family relationship as well.

This month, we are going to be talking about faith and trust in God, especially where it concerns money.

Take a dollar bill or a coin out of your pocket.  Don’t worry, we already had the offering, so you’ll be able to keep it. 

Take it out, go ahead, I’ll wait.

Now look on the back if it’s a bill, or on the front if a coin.  What does it say? 

It should say “In God we trust.” 

Our money says “In God we trust.”  Isn’t it funny that our money has trust in God?

Let’s talk about trust for a moment.  Trust is one of the most fragile items on the planet earth. It is difficult to build up and it can be destroyed by a single careless action. And once broken, it takes a very long time to piece it back together.

I’ll need a volunteer from the studio audience for an experiment (do the Trust Test—falling backwards).

People trust in all kinds of things rather than God. They will talk to their friends. They will listen to Oprah and Dr. Phil. They will read self-help books. Or read “Ann Landers” and “Dear Abby. But they find it hard to trust promises of the God who created the universe and created them.

What do you trust in? Do you trust that God will catch us when you fall?  How about trusting God to keep his promises?

Today we heard Ps. 37:5- Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him…

Also, Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

To me the image of being held in the palm of God’s hand, sort of like in our experiment a moment ago, represents the level of faith and trust we should have in God. God never moves his hand away and never drops me. I am always held tenderly in God’s hand.
The writer of Psalm 37 develops the case that God can be trusted because of how trustworthy God has been in the past. In verse 25 he writes, “I was young and now am old and I have never seen the righteous forsaken.”

God continually proves himself worthy of trust.

Well, that’s nice, but here’s the big question: will we trust God with our money?

Luke tells us that whoever can be trusted with little can be trusted with much.  Well, trusting God with our money is like trusting God with our lives, and that’s a whole lotta much!

But Jesus emphasizes that all money belongs to God, which is, of course, counter to what the world teaches us—that money is our god.

But we cannot serve two masters, both God and money.  “Choose for yourself this day whom you will serve; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

How do we honor or serve God with our money? 

One way is to give back to God a portion of what he’s given us in an act of trust.

Contrary to popular belief, a church is not a business.  There are many similarities, and a few legal necessities, but a church is a community of faith which trusts in God to provide what is needed for Gods ministry to continue, like keeping the lights on.  And God provides through the committed giving of the people who give back to God a portion of what he’s already given us.

Yet, unfortunately, not every member makes this commitment.
In fact, when we, as Christians, see how much God has entrusted to our care, it is embarrassing to see how little we return to Him.

Again, Ps. 37:5- Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him…

We all make commitments.  If you joined this church, you made a commitment.  Your commitment as a member was, and is, to support the church with your “prayers, your presence, your gifts, and your service.”

However, our culture has a problem with the “C-word”—“commitment”.  This is especially true, I understand, for guys in dating relationships.

We think, “How can I commit go give money to God’s church for ministry?  I need all I can get!  I won’t be able to live!  Maybe I don’t trust God with my money.”

People are funny when it comes to money.

One Sunday morning a pastor encouraged his congregation to consider the potential of the church.
He told them, "With God’s help we can see the day when this church will go from crawling to walking.”
The people responded: “Yes, let the church walk, Pastor. Let the church walk.”
He continued, “And when the church begins to walk, next the church can begin to run.”
And the people shouted, “Let the church run, Pastor. Let the church run!”
The pastor continued, “And finally the church can move from running to flying. Oh, the church can fly! But, of course, it’s going to take lots of money for that to happen.”
The congregation grew quiet and from the back someone mumbled, “Let the church crawl, Pastor. Let the church crawl.”

My brothers and sisters, St. Paul ’s can either fly or crawl.  It’s up to you.

You see, we seem to have a growing epidemic here at St. Paul ’s: a lack of commitment.  That “C-word.”

We have a lack of financial commitment, so that we begin each new year with an underfunded budget.  For 2006, even though our overall budget is less than last year’s, we are still underfunded by over $66,000 because some of our members won’t commit to pledge, or some are still pledging in 2006 what they pledged in 1989.  Try buying a gallon of gasoline today with what you spent in 1989!

We have the same lack of commitment in serving.

Let me tell you a story using four typical Church Members. I’ll name them Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to do and everybody thought that somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it but none of them did it, so it didn’t get done. Somebody got angry because it was everybody’s job. Everybody thought for sure that somebody would do it, but nobody asked anybody. In the end the job wasn’t done, and everybody blamed somebody when nobody asked anybody.

Many hands make light work, both financially and physically.  We still need people to serve on various ministry teams, but we can’t even get ushers and greeters!

A man once told me that he was looking for a church to join where he could attend once in a while, but he did not have to get involved or be committed to anything.
Now, I know that I’m preaching to the choir, that most of the folks here are committed to the ministry of St. Paul’s, and you tithe and serve on ministry teams.

But if we are to continue to have St. Paul’s be a relevant, vital, existing congregation twenty, ten, or even five years from now, it will require commitment.

Here are two examples of churches that had no commitment (AP press articles).

We need to be committed to trusting God and committed to the vows we took when we became members of the church.
We must become committed members of St. Paul ’s by our:

- Prayers. For by praying for others you become a servant to them, and in serving even the least of these his brethren, you have served God.

- Presence. Being here, not only for worship, but for Christian education and fellowship events like dinners and such.

- Gifts.  Pledging and giving our offering or even tithes to God.

- Service. Being a witness, rearing your children properly, setting an example in holiness and love, teaching, preaching, singing, and all the physical things one might do for the church and in the church are services to God.

Only then can St. Paul ’s continue to be God’s beacon of light of hope in our communities, so that we can share Christ’s love with those around us.

COMMUNION