Jesus once said, Matthew 19:23, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." Why did Jesus say that? Jesus knew how powerful the love of money is. It is very easy for the love of money to replace love for the Lord. Martin Luther once said that the last thing to be converted in a Christian is his pocketbook. If your response to the word "stewardship" is "Oh, no! Pastor is going to talk about money again," you are experiencing the love of money which also resides in your heart.

What is stewardship? Stewardship that pleases God is the response of a Christian to God’s love. I love God because he first loved me. I love God because he so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son to be MY Savior. With Jesus I go to heaven. Without Jesus I would go to hell. I love God because he has so richly blessed me in so many ways. I recognize and confess with the psalmist, Psalm 145:15-16, The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. Every good thing I experience in life comes to me from the hand of God and I want to respond with worship and praise. I want to respond by giving back to God my time and my talents and my treasures. I WANT TO RESPOND! GOD HIMSELF HAS MADE ME A CHEERFUL GIVER.

How much? Once more I ask, "Is this the question of the ‘Oh, no!’ giver? Or is this the question of the ‘I love God’ giver? This is God’s answer, 1 Corinthians 16:2, On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income. This is Jesus’ answer, Luke 12:48, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." How much? The Old Testament laid down the standard of the tithe or 10% of one’s income (and savings?). But God has not bound us with a demand for the tithe in the New Testament. Why not? Because God doesn’t want to limit you to 10%. What God is looking for isn’t a percentage reluctantly given because it is demanded from you but for a percentage that is cheerfully given because you love God so much. Can you understand, then, why God so much rejoiced when the apostle Paul was able to report about the Christians in Corinth, 2 Corinthians 8:5, And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will?

Are you still reading this stewardship message? Wonderful! You are battling the sinful nature’s response to the word "stewardship" with an inner "Oh, no! Pastor is still talking to me about money."

Our stewardship services this year are going to be tied in with our synod’s "Year of Jubilee" special offering which will be the focus of our attention the three Sundays after Thanksgiving. A letter about this celebration is also included with this newsletter.

But I don’t want you to wait until then to think about stewardship. Money is a necessary tool for the ministry of this congregation. When the amount of money given doesn’t meet current expenses, the first response given is "Where can we cut expenses?" The second response is "Might we have to cut our called staff?" Might I suggest that the cheerful giver’s first response should rather be, "How can I give more because God has so richly blessed me?" The cheerful giver’s second response should rather be, "How can we as a congregation increase our offerings so that God’s work in our midst might not be hindered - in our church, in our school, in our synod." This congregation doesn’t exist to raise money. It exists to spiritually feed the members of this congregation - young and old - and then to extend the message of God’s love for us in Jesus to as many other people as possible.

Again this year the challenge to financially support the Lord’s work in our midst and throughout the world is before us. So far this year financially we have come short. How shall we respond? May God give to each of us the presence and power of the Holy Spirit so that when God looks into each of our hearts he sees not a love of money but a love for him. God loves a cheerful giver. May that cheerful giver be me - and you.