Your Legacy, Your Choice

So here we are, April.  For those who have been a part of the Cornerstone family for more than a year then you know what April means. 

For those of you who have been with us for less than a year you might think that April is simply the month that falls between March and May.  And while that is true, at Cornerstone April has been traditionally, at least since 2002, the month that Denn talks about money.

And you might think that is a bit strange, so let me give you some history and background as to why that occurs.

First of all, it occurs in April because this is the end of the church year for Wesleyan Churches.  Why April?  I have no idea, but it is what it is.

Prior to 2002 Cornerstone handled our budget and finances like most churches do.  Before the new church year, the local board would sit down and draw up a budget for the new year.  But there was really very little rationale for the budget.  The best that we would hope for was we’d take last year’s budget and say “We hope to grow this year, so let’s increase the budget by 10%” But that very seldom took into account if we had made the budget the previous year or not.

It’s like writing a personal budget without taking into account your income.  Assuming the money will just appear.  The problem in churches is when the money doesn’t just appear then the pastor is instructed to preach on money. And because the pastor only preaches on money when there is a problem it comes across as scolding or nagging.  And most people learn from childhood to mentally turn down the volume of nagging and scolding. 

So in 2002, the leadership at Cornerstone decided that instead of having the pastor preach on money when things are tight, and then it comes off as desperation, we would take the month of April, each year, to teach the theology of giving, how we make our money and how we use our money.  

First we called it Stewardship Emphasis month but some where along the line it became know as simply “Money Month” 

And then on the last Sunday of April, step up cards will be distributed to folks who call Cornerstone their church home to respond and provide an estimate of what they believe they will be able to give in the upcoming year.  In affect you get to have a say in the budget and say “This is the type of church I would like to have this year.”

And then we take the cards, add them up and that becomes our budget for the year.  Not a nickel more.  And to stress the reality of that concept, the first time we did that at Cornerstone I lost a third of my salary and had to take outside employment for the next couple of years.

I think I handle the mechanics of it well; we try not to embarrass anyone or put anyone on the spot. If you don’t want to participate that is fine, although we encourage everyone to take part.   And we don’t come knocking on your door if you aren’t able to give what you thought you’d be able to, we hope you will after all we have based our budget on those figures.  And we provide you with updates throughout the year about where we are in relation to what was committed and where you are personally in relation to your commitment

 The scripture that was read earlier is one of many instances in the bible when Christians were taught about and reminded of their giving habits.  You see it’s not just Denn who talks about money.

In this case Paul is writing to the Corinthian church and he’s dealing with a collection that was being received for the believers in Jerusalem who were in the midst of persecution for their faith.  And Paul is commending the Corinthian Church and he reaches back into the Old Testament for the proper words and he quotes Psalm 112:9 where David is talking about the righteous people who served God.   Psalm 112:9  They share freely and give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. They will have influence and honour.

What Paul is speaking of and alluding to here transcends money and giving because he’s speaking of the legacy that the Corinthians Church is leaving, in particular I want to focus on the sentence that says “Their good deeds will be remembered forever”. 

This month our theme is “Your Legacy, Your Choice”   and we really need to begin by defining what we mean by legacy.  Collin’s English Dictionary defines Legacy this way:

Legacy:

1.         a gift by will, especially of money or personal property

2.         something handed down or received from an ancestor or predecessor

Sometimes people will leave a legacy of money to an organization when they pass away.  When Angela and I had our wills prepared we stipulated that 10% of our estate was to be given to the church where we were actively worshipping at the time of our death.   That would be a legacy, probably not a really large legacy but a legacy never the less. 

And for the purpose of my messages I want to combine those definitions and look at what we hand down because of our giving.   Paul told the Corinthians that they would be remembered forever for their good deeds, for having giving freely and generously. 

And so he begins by telling the church 2 Corinthians 9:6  Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.

The first thing we need to note is that 1) Everybody Leaves a Legacy Nobody lives a life without making some type of mark on the world, for good or for bad. 

Four Hundred years ago John Donne wrote “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”  Everyone will leave a legacy.

Paul says that some farmers plant a few seeds and some plant generously, but the reality is that they all plant something.

We might think that we don’t do much, and while your name might be forgotten the future will be written by what you do while you are here.  It might be a discovery made by your great great great grand-child.  But that is part of your legacy. 

Maybe you’ve heard it called the Butterfly effect or the fancy name is “The Law of Sensitive Dependence Upon Initial Conditions.”  But whatever you call it, it simply means that the smallest action can have an incredible result.  For good or for bad. 

Sometimes I don’t think we give enough thought to the impact that decisions that we make in our ordinary lives will have on tomorrow.

It was Bill Gates who wrote “Legacy is a stupid thing! I don't want a legacy.”  And maybe he was thinking of Windows ME or maybe the quote that is often attributed to him, where he supposedly said “640K of memory should be enough for anybody.”  He denies saying that, but I probably would as well. 

But Bill Gates will leave a legacy, whether he wants to or not, because of Bill Gates and Microsoft the world looks different than it would have or could have if a different operating system had of risen to the top of the pile.    And that doesn’t even take into account the Gates Foundation and the tens of billions of dollars that have been spent on health and education in developing countries around the world.

But how about this, in 1968 Bill Gates parents moved their Precocious son from public school to the prestigious Lakeside Academy a private school for the elite families of Seattle.  That same year the “Mother’s Club” at the school did a rummage sale.  There was much discussion of what to do with the considerable proceeds from the sale and finally it was suggested that the money be spent on a computer terminal for the students.  The computer terminal was placed in a little room in the basement of the school and Gates practically lived in that room from that day on.  In 1968 when most university didn’t have a computer for their students a grade eight student by the name of Bill Gates was learning programing. 

So whose legacy is it?  Bill Gates’ or the lady who spearheaded the rummage sale, or the mother who pushed to buy the computer? 

So, Everybody Leaves a Legacy

Let’s go back to Paul’s letter:  2 Corinthians 9:7  You must each decide in your heart how much to give.

When Paul tells his readers that they will each decide how much they will give, he is talking about money, but to limit it to dollars is an injustice to his writings.  Because 2) You Will Leave a Legacy by how you spend your life

Every one of us makes choices that will have an impact on our own lives.  I beat that drum all the time.  It goes way back to our childhood.  We choose whether we will work hard in school or not.  I was always content to be in the top third of the bottom half of my class, that was a choice I made.  We choose who our friends will be, we choose what activities we will be involved in.  And those choices that seem so inconsequential in our youth begin to form and shape us and ultimate the legacy we will leave. 

At some point we decide if we are going to go to university or not, which school we will attend, which courses we will take.  And when we graduate we choose what company we go to work for, who we date and then we choose who we will marry.  And maybe you are thinking, I didn’t choose to get married, I had to get married.  Well that probably goes back to another choice you made.   Those are all choices that we make, and they all affect the life we will live and the legacy we will leave. 

And we are free to choose to do whatever we want to do in life, but we have to understand that all choices have consequences.  Sometimes, good consequences, sometimes bad consequences, but consequences never the less.   It was French writer Albert Camus who wrote “Life is a sum of all your choices.”

And it’s not about accepting the blame it about accepting the responsibly for your choices, both good and bad.  Because this is the secret, once you realize that the choices you made yesterday have shaped today then you realize that the choices you make today will shape tomorrow.

Your tomorrow is your legacy.  You understand that you are only here because of a choice that someone made however long ago.  To illustrate, one day awhile ago my son and I were having a conversation and he said “Sometimes I wish you had of stayed fishing with your father, because I would have grown up on a fishing boat.”   Good thinking Steve, but then I reminded him, “If I had of stayed fishing with your grandfather then I would never have gone to bible college where I met your mother, and while my son might be fishing with me today, that son wouldn’t have been you.”

And so wise choices will lead to one legacy and less than wise choices will lead to another legacy. 

There is a familiar verse in the book of Numbers, some of you will know it from the King James or Authorized version of the bible, Numbers 14:18 KJV The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

But have you ever asked yourself, “What does it mean ‘visiting the inquity of the fathers upon the children.’”?

For some people the answer is found in the New International Version where it says Numbers 14:18 NIV  'The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.'   And they see God with a big stick punishing subsequent generations for sins committed in the past. 

Seriously, God is going to punish me for what my Great-grandfather did?  Most days I don’t think I deserve punishment for what I’ve done.

Now listen to the New Living Translation,  Numbers 14:18  ‘The LORD is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. He lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.’

Let’s read that again ‘He lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.’  We may not be punished for the actions of our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, but often times we are who we are because of choices they made. 

Where they chose to live.  How much value they placed on education and their views or morality.  All of those things colour our lives.  But we get to choose the colour.  Will you live the consequences of your parent’s actions or will you learn from your parent’s actions?

Don’t let the past become an excuse for the present, “Well I am who I am because that’s how I was raised” or “I can’t do much because I’m from. . .” or  “That’s what my parents were like, so I guess that’s why I’m like this.”  In the Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren writes  “We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it.”

Regardless of the legacy that you were left determine in your heart that you will leave a better legacy. 

Christ didn’t just come so we would have eternal life, he came to give us a different life while we are here, he told his followers in  John 10:10  The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

The devil wants to steal and destroy your legacy, but Christ’s plan is for you to have a rich and satisfying life.  Whatever your background, whatever your heritage, whatever you are struggling with there have been people from there who have chosen to rise above it and leave a mark and leave a legacy and so can you.  

But here is the great thing, Eleanor Roosevelt said “I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”  Which means that the choices we make today will determine who we are tomorrow. 

2 Corinthians 9:8  And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.

3.  You Will Leave a Legacy by How You Spend Your Money  You knew it had to come to this eventually right?  After all it is April.  But cheer up, we won’t be here long this morning.

So, let’s start up front by saying God and the Bible have nothing against money.

Through the scriptures we find folks who were wealthy in their culture.  The Bible provides us with all kinds of directions of how we view money, how we get money and what we do with the money after we have it. 

Jesus warns us of the danger of what can happen when we get our priorities about money twisted around, but there is no glory is being poor. 

Contrary to popular opinion Jesus did not say “Money is the root of all evil.”  What you might be thinking of is the warning that Paul gave Timothy in 1 Timothy but Paul didn’t warn Timothy about money, instead he warned him about priorities.    1 Timothy 6:10  For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.  And you don’t have to be rich to love money and crave money, and unfortunately too many people have traded away eternity for a handful of dust.

But listen up, this is important.  We will all choose to spend our money somewhere.  Angela and I tithe.  That is, we give 10% of what we make to the local church.  We believe that is a biblical concept.  And I’m not bragging I’m simply stating the reality.

And we are not the only folks at Cornerstone who have made that decision, thankfully, or there would be no Cornerstone.

And there are times that I have heard folks say, “I don’t know how you can afford to do that”

And I understand what they mean, because when I hear the price of beer and booze I think “I don’t know how people can afford to drink.”  When I see the price of cigarettes I think, “I don’t know how people can afford to smoke.”    

When I stand in line at a convenience story and watch people buying lottery tickets by the handful I think “I don’t know how people can afford to gamble.” 

And there have been times I have thought “I don’t know how people can afford to drive that car or live in that house or have their kids in organized sports.”  And trust me I’m not being judgemental, just curious. 

But the reality is that we all choose where we will spend our money. And we spend our money on what we perceive to be valuable.

Very early in the bible we read about sacrifice.  It is the story of Cain and Abel the sons of Adam and Eve, the first folks recorded in the bible.  The story is told in Genesis, that’s the first book of the bible, where we read how Abel was murdered by his older brother.  The back story to the murder is told in Genesis 4:3-5  When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the LORD.  Abel also brought a gift—the best of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The LORD accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.  

We’ve been through this before.  Cain offered “some of his crops” and Abel offered “the best of the first born lambs.”    And what does that mean?  Well in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament we read Hebrews 11:4  It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.

Abel still speaks to us as an example of his faith, because he stepped out and gave his very best.

Each person who comes to Cornerstone makes a decision in what they will give, God won’t force you and Denn won’t force you.  It is a choice that you will make by yourself.  And you will decide if you will give some to God or if you are going to give the best to God. 

And all we ask is that over the next few weeks as we look at stewardship and legacies that you will commit yourself to asking God what that will look like in your life.