church

INI
16th Sunday after Pentecost
September 16, 2012
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

CHRISTIAN GIVING IS "IMPOSSIBLE"!
I Kings 17:8-16

Grace, mercy, and peace be with you from God the Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, Amen. Today's text comes from the Old
Testament book of First Kings, chapter seventeen, beginning with the eighth
verse, as follows:

8 Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath,
which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there
to provide for you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came
to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called
to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.” 11
And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a
morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 So she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I
do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and
see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself
and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” 13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not
fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and
bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. 14 For thus
says the LORD God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall
the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.’” 15 So
she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her
household ate for many days. 16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the
jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by
Elijah. Here ends our text.

In the Name of Our Savior Jesus Christ, to whom we owe everything, Dear
Fellow Redeemed,

When was the last time someone asked you to do the impossible? -I'm sure it's
happened to you before. A few years back I was asked to take part in a
fellow-pastor's installation service. The problem was that it was being held at
4:00 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon in a city that was 250 miles away. When I sat
down with a map and a calculator, I discovered that, short of chartering a jet,
there was no way to make it to that service after the conclusion of my own
Sunday service. There just wasn't enough time. They didn't realize it, of course,
but what they had asked me to do was simply impossible!

About two minutes after this sermon is over, you're going to be asked to do the
impossible. You'll be asked to exercise your ability for Christian giving, as our
Sunday offering is taken up. "Why, that's not impossible," you may object,
"that's easy! All I have to do is flip a few bucks into the collection plate as it
comes past, just like I always do." But this morning I'd like to submit to you,
my friends, that if it is easy -- then it is not Christian giving. In our text for
today, in fact, a starving widow woman will demonstrate to us that real giving is
the opposite of easy! Today's theme:

CHRISTIAN GIVING IS "IMPOSSIBLE"!
I. It presents an impossible challenge -- that can only be met by faith
II. It comes with an impossible promise -- that can only be believed by faith

The date was the middle of the ninth century BC The place was the village of
Zarephath in the extreme northern part of Palestine, on the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea. The whole region was at that time in the grip of a three-year
drought. Food had run out, and many people were starving to death. The
prophet Elijah was without food, too. Now God certainly could have used any
miracle He wished to provide for Elijah - he could have sent an angel with food
for him every day. But the Lord had decided to do it in a way that would benefit
another one of His precious believers - a humble widow woman who happened
to live in Zarephath.

She wasn't even an Israelite. Her village was in the region between Tyre and
Sidon, well outside the borders of Israel. And yet, God had chosen this poor
Gentile woman for a very special purpose. 8 Then the word of the LORD came
to him, saying, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell
there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 10 So he
arose and went to Zarephath. This widow woman was about to learn a lesson
about Christian giving - Christian giving isn't easy - in fact, if it weren't for faith,
it would be downright impossible!

Consider the challenge that God presented to that poor widow woman. Elijah
first asked her for water -- well, that part at least was easy. The woman went to
get it right away. But as she was leaving, Elijah added, almost as an
afterthought, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 So she said,
“As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a
bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may
go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

What an interesting reply! -No hysterics, no scornful derision at this obviously
impossible request. In a calm voice - the voice of faith - she simply states the
facts. The Lord has determined that she and her boy will die in this famine, and
she for her part is ready to go.

Elijah takes the challenge a step further: Do not fear; go and do as you have
said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward
make some for yourself and your son. Feed the Lord's prophet first, before you
feed yourself. Give to the Lord first, and then use what's left over for yourself
and your family!

It was an "impossible" challenge! But with the same calm faith, the widow met
that challenge. She did exactly as the prophet instructed her. And how hard
must that have been!?

Actually it was more than just hard. The kind of giving that our Lord requires
presents an "impossible" challenge -- a challenge that can only be met by faith.
Most of us are perfectly willing to give something to God. And for most us , I'm
afraid, the easier that sacrifice is, the better! A few dollars in the collection
plate, a couple minutes of our time, a small portion of our talents -- perhaps
that's all you're willing to give. But my Christian friends, that's not what God
wants. He challenges us to truly sacrificial giving. When asked how much a
person should give to church, C. S. Lewis replied, "I don't think we can set a
specific amount. The only safe answer is, 'More than you can spare.'" Truly
sacrificial giving means giving more than we can spare. It means giving to God
first, and giving in proportion to what God has given us.

The Bible provides lots of direction on how God wants us to give. One thing it
says is that we are to set aside our offering to the Lord first, before we give for
anything else. Paul tells us, "On the first day of the week let each one of you lay
something aside, storing up as he may prosper." -- 1 Cor 16:2. Now, that can be
tough to do - to write your weekly offering check first -- before you pay your
bills, before you gas up the car, before you do anything else. In Proverbs we
read, "Honor the LORD with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all
your increase." -- Prov 3:9. Has God been getting the firstfruits of your
possessions -- or have you been giving Him the leftovers?

The Bible also challenges us to give in fair proportion to the wealth that the
Lord has given us. The great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon once issued a
challenge like that to a wealthy friend of his. The man had invited him down to
preach at the country church he belonged to - there was going to be a special
offering taken to help retire a large debt that the congregation owed. The man
told Spurgeon that while he was in the area he was free to use his country
house, his town house, or his seaside home. Spurgeon wrote back, flatly
refusing the invitation. He said, "Sell one of your houses and pay the debt
yourself!"

Well, all of this sounds impossible. In fact, there's only one force capable of
meeting such a seemingly "impossible" challenge -- and that's God-given faith!
People with Christian faith in their hearts are people who are well-acquainted
with sacrificial giving. Why? -Because they learned it from the best Teacher of
all: God Himself! What did God give? "God so loved the world, that He gave
His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life." -- Jn 3:16.

What if you were called upon to give up, not money, but your own child for the
Lord? You remember God once asked that of Abraham. In the end though, after
the Lord had tested Abraham's faith, he was not required to go through with it.
But our Heavenly Father went through with it, didn't He? God the Father was
called upon to give up His only Son as the ransom price for the sins of the
world. It was the only way you and I could be rescued from the eternal hell that
our sins deserved. And our Heavenly Father went through with it! He willingly
made that sacrifice. On the dark, skull-shaped hill of Golgotha - on that darkest
of days, Good Friday - God gave His Son. And with that awesome,
self-sacrificial gift, you and I have been ransomed from hell once and for all!

Faith in what God gave - faith in Christ - is what makes real Christian giving
possible on our part. Faith in our Savior is what makes us want to meet the
challenge of Christian giving. Scripture records the example of that other
widow, the one we heard about in our Gospel Lesson, the one who in faith put
her last two pennies into the church collection box. Jesus said, "Truly I say to
you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their
abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty has put in
all the livelihood that she had." -- Luke 21:2-4. What about the disciples? They
"left everything" and followed Jesus. What about the sinful woman in the house
of Simon the Pharisee/ She spent several months' wages on perfume to anoint
Jesus' feet. What about the New Testament Christians in Jerusalem? After
Pentecost, many of them sold all their property and gave it to the church. These
people all did it – they all met the "impossible" challenge of sacrificial Christian
giving. Not because they were some kind of "super believers" -- but simply
because they realized what the Lord had done for them, and they couldn't help
reacting – in faith - by giving their firstfruits to the Lord. As the Apostle Paul
puts it, "The love of Christ constrains us." -We just don't have any choice!

But back to the story. In our Christian lives, God never sends a challenge
without sending a promise along with it. Along with the challenge that that poor
widow faced came a promise - a promise that at first glance may have seemed
utterly impossible to believe! Elijah told her, Thus says the LORD God of
Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until
the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.’

Some restaurants advertise a "bottomless cup of coffee" -- but who ever heard
of a bottomless bin of flour? The widow was being asked to believe in a
promise that was completely unreasonable, that just didn't make sense. The
basic math didn't add up: it looked like she was dividing her already scarce
supply of food -- but God promised that the food would in fact multiply. She
was being asked to subtract the best part for God -- but the Lord promised to
add to her many times the amount she had given up. Well, when the Lord starts
telling you things like that, you may as well take that adding machine in your
head and throw it right out the window - your human reason won't help you one
bit! For this is the kind of promise that can only be believed by faith.

And the widow did believe it! Our text says, So she went away and did
according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many
days. 16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry,
according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah. By the way,
"many days" is a misleading translation. It was longer than that. That handful of
flour and those few ounces of oil fed them for over a year. It just never ran out!
They kept using it, and every day God in His grace kept providing more - all
that they needed. The promise held good, exactly as the Lord had spoken.

The kind of giving that our Lord requires from us also comes with an
"impossible" promise -- a promise that can only be believed by faith. The Lord
promises us that He will provide for us, come what may!

In other words: go out on a limb for the Lord! Pull out your billfold in faith,
and really make a dent in that collection plate. You have God's promise on it
that you're not going to lose by doing so! In the Old Testament, God directed
his people to "tithe," that is, to give back to the Lord exactly ten percent of
their income. Now, that isn't a hard-and-fast command for us New Testament
believers. On the other hand, I don't think it's a bad rule of thumb. Why not
shoot for that? You think the Lord's going to let you go broke? You know that's
never going to happen! In Malachi, our gracious God tells us to expect the exact
opposite: "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My
house, and prove Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "If I will not open
for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there
will not be room enough to receive it!" -- Mal 3:10.

Luther once gave this commentary on the best use of time: "I had so many
things to do today that, if I hadn't spent an extra hour in prayer, I would have
never got it all done!" No doubt a person could say the same thing about
Christian giving: "I had so many bills last month that, if I hadn't boosted my
Sunday offerings, I never would have got them all paid!" Let's remember: with
faith we can meet the "impossible" challenge presented by Christian giving.
With faith we can believe the "impossible" promise that comes with Christian
giving. With faith we know that the question posed by Paul in the eighth
chapter of Romans needs no answer: "He who did not spare His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all
things?" AMEN.