The Length of Your Legacy

Length of Your Legacy

How long will you be remembered?  I remember my Grandfather Guptill, we called him Da.  He passed away when I was 11.  I vaguely remember my mother’s grandfather, he passed away when I was seven, but we had moved overseas when I was five so those were my last recollections of Grampy Peter.  I never met my mother’s father, he was killed in an industrial accident when I was just a month old.

Often we live on in the memory of our children and grandchildren, but for most of us that will be it.  I don’t expect strangers to be talking about Denn Guptill seventy-five years from now, but there is a chance that my grand-daughters will remember me and their children. 

And I’m not sure if that is depressing or not.  It was Benjamin Franklin who said if you wanted to be remembered you would need to “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”  And while I am published it’s doubtful that the Penn of Denn will ever be remembered as great literature.  Mark Twain defined a classic book as “Classic: a book which people praise and don't read.”  So maybe the Penn is a classic.

This is week three of Money Month here at Cornerstone.  If you are new to Cornerstone this month is really for those who call Cornerstone their church home.  We do finances a little different at Cornerstone then most churches do, but it hasn’t always been that way.

For the first seven years of our life we struggled with our finances and really didn’t have a financial plan at Cornerstone.  We did write a budget each year, but it was more of a wish list then an actual budget.  As a leadership team we would sit down at the beginning of the new church year and draft our budget.  These are the things we need to spend money on, and here are the things that we’d like to spend money on.  And we felt that we were being fiscally responsible, but the budgets weren’t really based on solid data.  We didn’t actually know how much money we would receive and estimates were really guesses. 

So we would prepare a budget and present it to our annual meeting and it would be approved because. . .  it was the budget.

And then at some point in the year we would realize that we were under budget, usually on the income side, not the expense side.  So there would be suggestions, perhaps we should put our finances in the bulletin so people could see what was needed. But that usually was just depressing and wasn’t really the message you wanted to send to guests.

Then someone would suggest that maybe letters be sent out to everyone in the church and that Denn should preach on stewardship. And I have copies of those letters and those sermons, and the message always came across as a little desperate because no matter how you worded it the message was the same. . . “We need your money”.  And people just tuned out.  Those who were giving would dig a little deeper because it was a priority for them, and those who weren’t giving, very seldom started.

So in 2002 we made two major changes in how we would present and deal with our finances.  The first is that I would teach on stewardship and the theology of giving in April each year.  It is the end of our church year so it seemed like the best time.  Easter often falls in April so a lot of years that limits us to three Sundays, some years like this year you get four Sundays and when you are really lucky Easter falls in March and there are five Sundays in April.

So I’m not preaching on money because we are desperate or because there is a problem, but because it’s April.  And there are some folks who don’t come in April because they know what I’ll be preaching on, and that is their choice.

The second thing we do is to ask those who make Cornerstone their church home to estimate what they think they can give that year.  The last Sunday of April we hand out estimate of giving cards and ask, not tell, you to fill them out.  It is completely voluntary.  But you get to have a say in the budget, when you are filling out a card, or not filling out a card you are saying “This is the type of church I want Cornerstone to be. 

And we use that figure to determine our budget for the upcoming year.  And we feel that is the responsible way to do it.

This year our theme is “Your Legacy, Your Choice!”  And in week one I spoke about how Everybody leaves a legacy and that we leave a legacy with both our lives and our money.

Last week I spoke about how we have a legacy in the work that we do and what the bible had to say about our work.

This week my focus will be the length of your legacy, because while we understand that we all leave a legacy with our money, not all of those legacies have the same life span.

So let's look at a couple of different stories in the New Testament where giving actually impacted the lives of others.

One of my favourite stories in the gospels happened on the edge of the sea of Galilee.  The story is told in Matthew and Mark’s gospels.  A crowd has gathered to hear Jesus preach and the time has gotten away from them and suddenly the apostles realize that it is getting close to supper time and that people are starting to get hungry.  So they go to Jesus and tell him that it’s probably time to call it a day, that the people are going to have to head home to get something to eat. 

Jesus simply responds by saying “You feed them.”  Seriously?  Feed them what?  We pick up the story in Mark 6:37  But Jesus said, “You feed them.” “With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!”  

And so Jesus tells them to go into the crowd and see what they can rustle up for supper.  And they come back with a boy who offers up five rolls and two fish.  The story is one of those one taught to us in Sunday School and VBS, Jesus takes this gift and uses it to feed the thousands of people who have come to hear him teach.

And there are all kinds of lessons wrapped up in the story.  The generosity of the little boy, God using this small gift in a miraculous way, the faith of the apostles as they began to pass out the food.  And 2000 years people are still talking about what happened that day. 

But here is the reality, as miraculous as that was the people were hungry again the next day.  So we discover that Some Gifts Last for a Day: 

And that does not negate what happened that day, people were hungry and Jesus met a need. 

But the need that was met was very base and very temporal.  It filled their bellies but that was it.   

We leave this type of legacy all the time, at least I hope we do.   We leave it when we give a homeless person a handout on the street or at a set of lights in the city.  And I know the arguments, that you are simply enabling them, or they will probably use your loonie to buy cigarettes or booze.  Maybe, and if they do that is a choice that they make, but whether I give them sometime or not is a choice I make.

When you bring your cans of chunky soup and evaporated milk on the first Sunday of the month and we donate that to feed Nova Scotia, that is making an impact and leaving a legacy, but only a very temporary one. 

But for the person whose food for that meal is a can of chunky soup that you went out and bought and then remembered to bring in on a Sunday, it is important.  As important as the tuna fish sandwiches were to the folks that Jesus fed.

This type of giving is so important that Jesus used it as an example when he spoke about what the day of judgment would be like. You might recall, or not, that in the last days Jesus says that humanity will be divided into two groups, a group on the right and a group on the left.  And to the group on his right he says Matthew 25:34-36  “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.  For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.  I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

And when they asked “When did this happen, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or naked or sick?”  He replies in Matthew 25:40  And the King will say, “I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!”

If you google Loaves and Fishes before you get an entry about Christ’s miracle, you get hits about food banks with that name.

And it really doesn’t hurt us much to spend 5.00 to help someone, Jack London wrote “A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.”

Twice a month when we provide the Monday meal at Ronald McDonald House, we are leaving a legacy for a day.  When families return to RMH from the Children’s hospital and there is a hot meal waiting that they didn’t have to cook or buy, that means something.  It may just be filling a temporary need but it is filling a need and making an impact.

I’m sure you are all familiar with the statement “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”,   it’s been attributed to many different people over the years including Maimoides who was a 12^th century philosopher, but we really don’t know who actually said it the first time. 

Maimonides wrote about eight degrees in the duty of charity.  And he wrote this “ Lastly, the eighth and the most meritorious of all, is to anticipate charity by preventing poverty.”  I guess that is like teaching them to fish. 

But some of our giving leaves a legacy that goes beyond a day.  The passage that was read this morning ends with these words, 2 Corinthians 8:14-15  Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal.  As the Scriptures say, “Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough.”  

And it’s here we discover that Some Gifts Last for a Lifetime:  I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago.  Paul is addressing a serious problem in the early church.  Persecution had become a reality for the believers, especially in Jerusalem where it had been fanned into flames by the same religious leaders who had Christ crucified.  But more than that, the Roman authorities were starting to see Christians as a threat because of the growth of the church and their refusal to swear allegiance to Caesar.

Rome was fairly open to the various religions of the day, it really was live and let live.  But there was one condition that everybody had to live by, once a year they had to swear allegiance to the Emperor with words “Caesar is Lord.”  The only problem Christians refused to say that because to them it was blasphemy because for them only Jesus was Lord.

And believers in Jerusalem, because that was perceived to be the birthplace of the church, were suffering the most.  They were losing their jobs and their property,  sometimes being put in prison, sometimes losing their lives.  For many it wasn’t a matter of being unwilling to work it was being unable to work and the only reason they were able to survive was through the giving of other believers. 

We see that reflected in what we do with our Clean Water Project each Christmas where Cornerstone has provided clean water for over a dozen villages in Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In some ways it serves the same purpose as giving food but it goes so much further than that.  I am so passionate about clean water because of my teaching in West Africa and you can’t even comprehend the impact that clean water can make on the lives of people.

 Most people are now familiar with the Canadian charity “Me to We”  or “Free the Children”  when brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger first began their project they were funding education in Africa and they discovered that very few girls came to school.  Not because they weren’t permitted but because they were too busy carrying water.  And so they began providing clean sources of water along with schools and the difference was incredible.

Water provides so many life changing benefits, health, economic and educational.  It has a lifelong legacy.   By the way this is a picture of a well that we helped provided for a 175 bed hospital in Tandala in the DRC, and long after the sign is gone your giving will still be providing a legacy.

The present emphasis on refugee sponsorship in Canada has a similar legacy.  The difference in the lives of the families who come to Canada with the help of community groups like our own Kingswood Refugee Project will last for a lifetime. 

And I have mentioned before, that because people through the years have sacrificially given so that Cornerstone can exist we have had a life changing impact on individuals and families in our community.  Stories that you will never know about marriages that have been saved and children and teens who have been nudged away from bad decisions, addictions that have been overcome.  Those legacies go well beyond today, they last for a lifetime.

In the Gospels we often read accounts of Jesus healing people, and the ministry of healing continues into the book of Acts and beyond.  And I believe that even today that God heals people, but for all those who say that God always heals and all you need is enough faith let me share this with you: You are wrong!  And death proves that.

But for the person who has experienced a physical healing their life and their quality of life has been changed and they would often say it was a change for the best.  

But here is the reality of this point, people’s lives can be changed for the better.  They can be educated and healthy but still be far from God.  And while I truly believe that Jesus came so we could have better lives, abundant lives.  That’s not the main reason he came.  Because there are all kinds of organizations that help people have better lives but don’t prepare them for eternity.

Schools and service organizations help Feed Nova Scotia, other community groups assist with meals at Ronald McDonald House.  There are any number of well intentioned organizations who help provide clean water in the developing world and sponsor refugees.

But if we truly believe the word of Jesus than there is a legacy that lasts beyond our lifetime.  John 14:6  Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.    You understand what Jesus is saying there right, he’s not saying he is “a” way to God, he is saying he is “The” way to God.

And John 11:25-26  Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.  Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

Another story from the Gospels, this one more toward the middle.  Often when we picture Christ and his disciples we see them making their way from town to town, teaching and healing those they came in contact with.  Some kind of care free existence somewhere between Peter Pan and the Lost Boys and Robin Hood and his Merry Men.    You almost expect them to break into song as they make their way through the country side. 

But from a practical stand point, how did they survive?  Think about it, thirteen guys walk everywhere they went they had to be hungry at the end of the day.  But we don’t see them working part time, or sitting on the corner with a sign, or doing the squeegee kid thing with Chariots stopping at the lights.  Oh I know every once in a while you see them fishing, or picking some grain as they walked along the road and that was fine when they were around Capernaum where Peter and Andrews fishing boat was, and the picking grain that was a snack not a meal. 

But in order for Jesus and his happy little band of followers to have ministered for three years around Israel someone had to be footing the bill, and there’s just one little mention in the bible to give us a clue as to what was happening.   Luke 8:1-3 Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples.

Some Gifts Last for an Eternity: 

Plain and simple if these folks hadn’t been kicking in then Jesus and the 12 would not have been able to do what they did.  They were not only feeding 13 men their gifts were establishing a movement and leaving a legacy.

The gifts that were given by those folks 2000 years ago are directly responsible for your salvation.  Their legacy is you.

22 years ago this summer we moved back from Australia with the vision of a new church that we would be starting in Bedford.  We were partially funded by the district and denomination, but a significant portion of our funding came from individuals.  And that happened as I travelled across the district speaking wherever I could wangle an invitation.

And when I cast the vision for this church 22 years ago at Beulah Camp and around the churches on our district it wasn’t a vision to have another Wesleyan Church it was a vision to establish a church to help depopulate Hell.  And when people gave to that vision they weren’t giving so we could have another Wesleyan Church on the district, they were giving to a church that they’d probably never visit because they believed the vision, they gave so that people would meet Jesus.

And over the past 22 years marriages have been saved, and wells have been drilled and cans of soup have been collected, and that is fine and good.  But there will be people who will be in heaven and not in hell because this church was started.  And that is an eternal legacy.

And when we cast the vision for this building 12 years ago it wasn’t a vision to have a comfortable place to worship, it was a vision to help depopulate hell.  And because people sacrificially gave we have this building.

And there are people who started attending who would never have attended at the LeBrun centre who have stepped over the line of faith and there will be people who will be in heaven and not in hell because this church was built.

Three weeks ago a grade six student accepted Christ as their saviour and because of the teaching that happens in Jr. Church and Children’s church children embrace the reality of Christ and his grace and that is because folks at Cornerstone give so that we can have a pastors who focus on children and youth. And that is an eternal legacy.

We don’t give at Cornerstone simply to keep the lights on and the doors open we give to to help depopulate hell.  And that is an eternal legacy.

Next week at the end of the service we will distribute estimate of giving cards, they look like this.  And we will ask that each family who makes Cornerstone their church home prayerfully consider what they will be able to give in the upcoming year.  And you will have the opportunity to say, “This is the kind of church we’d like Cornerstone to be.”  And each of you will have a hand in shaping our legacy.

The Legacy of Work

Legacy of Work

Can you remember your first paying job?  I can I was. 14 and got a job as a pile it.   You might think that is a strange first job for a 14 year old but it is what it is. 

We lived in Hammond River just outside of Saint John New Brunswick and the Jr. High School I attended was overcrowded and so we did split shifts.  You either went to school from 8:00 until noon or from 12:15 until 4:15. 

Because of that I had a lot of free time.  The farmer down the road from us, Murray Crowley owned a team of horses and in the winter he worked in the woods.  And so he hired me to help, he would cut the wood and I’d pile it.  What were you thinking?  I mean, who in their right mind would let a 14 year old fly a plane? 

Any way that was the beginning of my employment history, and I discovered that I liked stuff and the money that I got from working would buy stuff and so I’ve worked pretty much continually for the past 41 years.   And during that time I have pumped gas, sold clothes, sold vacuum cleaners, for about a week, sold cars, worked as a bell hop and front desk clerk at the Admiral Beatty Hotel in Saint John.  I’ve worked on tug boats, fishing boats and oil tankers, served in the Military Police in the reserves while I was in college, have been an assistant pastor, a solo pastor and a lead pastor.  Technically we were missionaries during our four years in Australia, and during time we have been at Cornerstone I sold clothes at Tip Top Tailors and worked as a freelance writer for six different magazines and taught at Kingswood University.

For most of us work, is something we do, and for some of us work is something that defines us.  You don’t just work as a policeman you are a policeman, you don’t just work as a nurse or doctor or teacher, that’s what you are. Perhaps not in your eyes but certainly in the eyes of others. 

This is week two of Money Month at Cornerstone.  Just to highlight, since 2002 we have taken the month of April to focus on the theology of our money.  How we make it and what we do with it after we have it.  And what that means for us as Christians. 

I realized that for the first seven years that our church existed that the only time I spoke about money was when things were tight.  And then there was always an air of desperation about it. 

And it really came across as scolding people or trying to guilt them into giving.   What usually happened was that those who were giving gave more and those who weren’t giving just became resentful.

So in 2002 we adopted a new model where I take the month of April to discuss the biblical view of money and giving.  And at the end of the month, we offer those who call Cornerstone their church home an opportunity to let us know what they estimate they will be able to give in the year ahead and that figure is what we will use to create our budget for the new year. 

Our theme this year is “Your Legacy, Your Choice”  and last week we started looking at how we each shape the legacy that we leave.  And I mentioned that Everybody Leaves a Legacy, it might not be apparent but it is there, and it is far reaching.  And then I spoke about how We Leave a Legacy By How We Spend Our Lives, and talked about choices that we make and how the choices we made yesterday have shaped our today, which means the choices that we make today will shape our tomorrows. I guess that means, “Choose carefully”.  And then I spoke about how We Leave A Legacy By How We Spend Our Money.  And my main point there was that We will all choose to spend our money somewhere. 

And some folks can’t understand how Angela and I can afford to tithe our incomes to Cornerstone, that is we give 10% of what we make back to God.  Notice that I said that we give it back, because it truly is our understanding that what we have we receive from God.   So I guess truthfully we all choose to spend God’s money somewhere.

In the same way that some people can’t understand how Angela and I can afford to tithe I can’t understand how some people can afford to drink, smoke, play the lottery or for that matter play golf.  Most of us can’t imagine how others can do what we don’t do, but they do, because they have chosen to.

This morning we are going to shift our gears a bit and look at “The Legacy of our Work”.

In the scripture that was read earlier Paul is addressing a problem in the Thessalonian church.  He is actually re-addressing a problem he had addressed in his previous letter to the same people.    In 1 Thessalonians we read; 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12  Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before.  Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.

And apparently not everyone got it, because in his next letter Paul gets a little stronger,  for those who missed it the first time he reiterates.  2 Thessalonians 3:10  Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”   Wow, that does sound very biblely, “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”  To soften it a bit, he does not say those unable to work, he says those unwilling to work.  And there is a world of difference between the two.

Abraham Lincoln once received a letter from his step-brother asking for a loan of $80.00.  This is part of Lincoln’s response, “Now, this can only happen by some defect in your conduct. What that defect is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an idler. I doubt whether, since I saw you, you have done a good whole day's work in any one day. You do not very much dislike to work, and still you do not work much merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it. This habit of uselessly wasting time is the whole difficulty;”

It wasn’t that the folks in Thessalonica were lazy, but they were idlers. 

The back story here it seems is that there were those in the church who were waiting expectantly for Jesus to return and they felt that there was no need to spend that time doing something as unspiritual as earning a living.  So they were sponging off the rest of the church while they waited.  And that was causing problems in the church, resentments were building and because these people weren’t working they were using their free time stirring up unrest in the church.  Because while it’s not in the bible it is true, Idle Hands are the Devil’s hands

And so Paul tells them to get a job, but he’s also telling others in the church to stop enabling these folks.  The command that those who did not work should not eat was a warning for some and instruction to others. 

And I would expect that if you had of talked to those who weren’t working that they would have offered all kinds of “Spiritual” reasons for doing what they were doing.

That there were able to spend more time in prayer, or in studying the scriptures.  Perhaps they felt they were showing more faith by not being concerned about worldly things, after all Jesus had reminded the people that God took care of the birds of the air.  Or maybe they thought they were being obedient in putting aside the things of the world while waiting for Christ’s return. 

We really don’t know their rationale for why there were doing what they were doing. 

But I do know that sometimes we try and separate our secular work from our Christian walk.  People put work in one area of their lives and they put their Christianity in another area of their lives.  Never the twain to meet. 

And what Paul wrote next was not a hint or a suggestion, it was a command and it was coached in the strongest of terms.  2 Thessalonians 3:12  We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn their own living.   Paul is so serious that he actually invokes the name of Christ, because he knew that these idlers weren’t just causing problems within the Christian community that they were giving Christianity a black eye. 

Because sitting around all day isn’t what God intended.

Work is a major theme through the story.  If we go back to the story of creation we read Genesis 2:15  The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.   We Were Created to Work  So when God created man, he created him to work tending the garden, I don’t know what that entailed but it seemed to require some effort.

And God knew that man needed something to do, that’s how we were created, in the image of God, the creator.  If we go back to the beginning of the story it begins with God working, he creates the heaven and the earth and everything in heaven and earth and then after six days we are told that he rested.

Rabbi Daniel Lapin wrote “Man is most in God’s image when he is creating things.”

And through the bible we see people working and being commended for the work they do.  They were farmers, shepherds, fishermen and administrators.  And God commended them for it and rewarded them for what they did.

And through the bible you will find admonitions to work.  Proverbs 13:4  Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.  And Proverbs 21:5  Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.

Throughout this book of wisdom it is reiterated over and over again that the result of being lazy, or idle is poverty. And so the plan seems to include work.

Dave Ramsay, the financial guru wrote “Your greatest wealth-building tool is your income.”  He goes on to say that too many people get distracted by get rich quick schemes or high risk ventures because they want to get rich overnight.   But ultimately we are told in Proverbs 10:4  Lazy people are soon poor; hard workers get rich.

And that doesn’t mean that we will never need help and never need to help people.  There are times that we hit a rough spot, perhaps we lose our job or illness or some other circumstance prevents us from working.  

I’ve told story before, I went to college with a guy named Mike Ward who was from Louisiana, and Mike wasn’t allowed to work in Canada.  So there were times that things would get tight for Mike and he’d pray, “Lord, you know that I’m going to run out of toothpaste and shampoo, and I need a new pair of jeans cause my old one have a hole in them”  And then two days later a package would arrive with a note saying “Mike I was praying the other day and the Lord impressed on my to send you this.”  And there’d be toothpaste, shampoo and a new pair of jeans and an American ten dollar bill.

So I thought I’d try it and so I prayed the same way, and I got a job. 

But the plan, is for us to work to earn our living whenever it is possible.  And sometimes that means working at jobs that you think are below you if that’s all you can find.   

And maybe you are thinking “I hate my job and there is nothing I can do about it.”  Well the first part of that statement might be a reality.  And if it is then it probably goes back to the choices that you made at various points in your life.  But the second part, the part that says “there is nothing I can do about it” is only a perceived reality.  History is full of people who have changed careers in midlife.  But it’s like changing canoes in mid-river, it can be done but it should be done carefully and it’s not without risk.

My father is my hero in many ways but in particular in this instance.  Dad quit school in grade six and went fishing with his dad.  When he was old enough he joined the army as a cook for 17 years and then he got out and then did whatever it took to provide for his family.  He cooked in and then managed restaurants, he drove cab and dump trucks, worked on fishing boats and operated heavy equipment. 

And then when he was 37 he decided to go navigation school.  With a grade six education he began to study and learn things like trigonometry and navigation.  And eventually he became Captain Guptill and sailed all over the world. 

You see, Dad knew the reality that you can’t start over but you can start again.  You can’t change the past but you can make choices that will change your future.

Colossians 3:22-23  Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord.  Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

The second thing that we need to discover is that Our Work is Our Witness Let me say, let’s don’t get hung up on the word “Slave” here, the word can mean servant as well.  For most of us, we spend most of our waking hours at work, or getting to work or back from work.  That’s just a reality and for most of us we do it for more than forty years. 

And there are some folks who begrudge that time, and they’ll say things  like “I wish I had more time to do things for God.”  Or “When I retire, that’s when I will be able to do ministry.”

But that is where God has put you, and it’s not separate from our Christian life it is a major part of our Christian life.  Sometimes I’ll be talking to someone and they’ll tell me how pagan their work place is, the language that is used and the crude stories that are told.  And they’ll say “You don’t know how dark it is, I wish I could find a Christian company to work for.” 

And I will remind them that we are called to be light, Jesus told his followers in Matthew 5:14  “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.”  And then I’ll ask them, “Where does a light do the most good?  Somewhere where it is already bright or somewhere where it is dark?”  And that’s a no brainer, the light from a single candle will chase away the darkness. 

Every one of us has the opportunity and the responsibility to be light and and to be the light where God has placed us.  It might be the hockey rink while your kids are playing, it might be the golf course while you are playing, and it while always be where you spend the majority of your time, and if that is your place of employment then shine as bright as you can, because Jesus went on to remind people in  Matthew 5:15-16  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

But it isn’t just about being a good Christian it’s about being a good worker.  You are there to represent Christ and how hard you work, the language you use, your demeanour and your attitude will ultimately reflect on Christianity and the church.

Through the years I have met unchurched folks who have worked with people from the church I was pastoring at the time.  And there were times that that made me proud to be there pastor and to be truthful there were times that made me cringe.  And you can only imagine how it make Jesus feel.

Deuteronomy 8:17-18  He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’  Remember the LORD your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.”

Work is From God and For God    God wants you to be successful.  Now I don’t mean that God necessarily wants you to drive a Maserati, live in a 50 room house and own a jet.  But he does want you to be able to support yourself and your family and to give back to Him. 

There is nothing spiritually edifying about being poor.

I talked about this last week, the bible is not opposed to money, but it consistently warns us to be careful about our priorities and the choices we make, which is why Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:24  “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.  That statement is not a warning about money, it is a warning about priorities and who or what we will serve.      

And I believe that God blesses those who are responsible with their money and are faithful with their money.  But he expects us to do our part. Even when miracles happen in the bible and a little becomes a lot, it starts with someone giving the little to start with.

From the beginning of the book God’s work has been supported by God’s people, whether it was building the temple, or operating the temple or ministry in the early church, the funds came from the people of God.  And it was seen as returning a portion of what God had allowed them to earn.  It was set as a percentage, and so it really benefited God’s work when folks who were faithful in their giving earned more. 

I can’t count the number of times over my ministry that someone has told me how they will start to give when they get that raise, or the better job or win the lottery.  But as one wit wrote, “It’s not what you’d do with millions if riches ere be your lot, but what you are doing at the present with the buck and a quarter you’ve got.”

So who will God bless?  The answer is given by Jesus in  Luke 16:10-11 Jesus said “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.  And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?”  When we are faithful, God trusts us with more.

When we stop viewing work as something we have achieved and see it as a gift from God and that we have it so that we can make a difference in our world the we begin to see it as a part of our legacy.

Let’s finish with a portion of the scripture we read last week where Paul told the believers in Corinth,  2 Corinthians 9:10 For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.

He just wants you to trust him, so that he can produce a great harvest of generosity in you.

And so I leave you with these words of wisdom from Josh Billings, “Never work before breakfast. If you have to work before breakfast, get your breakfast first.”

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.